■v    ■■    ■':  .-^.l  .  '/ 


DORCHESTER 
BOOK 


ILLUSTRATED 


"SOROSIS," 

The  New  Shoe  for  IVomen^ 


Is  worn  by  many  of  the  famous  professional 
and  society  women;  and  we  have  many  let- 
ters that  are  unsolicited,  but  highly  compli- 
mentarv  to  this  shoe.  We  have  received 
orders  to  send  these  shoes  to  Paris,  London, 
China,  Sweden,  Italy,  and  Cuba,  as  well  as  to 
nearly  every  State  in  the  Union.  Mail  orders 
from  any  part  of  the  country  sent  postage  free, 
but  we  much  prefer  to  fit  every  pair,  to  insure 
proper  satisfaction  to  the  customer. 

They  are  the  perfection  of  style,  fit,  and  fin- 
ish.      They    are    the    standard    of   the   world,    a 
perfect  shoe  at  a  fair  price,  and  the 
most  satisfactory  shoe  at  any  price,      \}^    l  O 

~  PAIR. 

Shepard^  Norwell  and  Company^ 

WINTER  STREET,  BOSTON. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


RESKRVKD 


D.  J.  Cutter, 
COAL  AND  WOOD, 

DORCHKSTER, 

MASS. 

CUTTER'S    WHARF, 

COMMKRLIAL    1'()1NI\ 

Telephone    317. 


Compliments  of 


ALBERT    L.  JEWELL, 


Boston. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


E.    A.    HUEBENER    &    CO., 

FURNITURE. 

Repamng  and   Upholstering. 

ANTIQUE  FURNITURE  a  Specialty. 

Mr.  Huebener  was  born  in  Dorchester.  Learned  his  trade  with  Oliver  Hall  & 
Son,  Furniture  Manufacturers,  Meeting-house  Hill,  also  la  years  with  F.  Schlotterbeck, 
Parkman  Street,  and  now  can  be  found  at  315  Adams  Street,   near  Park,  Dorchester. 


J.  P.  &  W.  H.  Emond 
Carriage  Builders  /.  .-. 

2109  TO   2  1  15   WASHINGTON    STREET,    BOSTON. 


Q,..cv  A.    SH.W,  J..,   Treas. 

The  Lockwood  Manufacturing  Co., 

Iron  Works  and  Docks, 

61  to  8  5  Sumner  Street,  East  Boston,  Mass. 

builders  of 


Steamships,    Tow   Boats, 

Marine    Engines,  and  Boilers. 

Marine   Railway  on  the   Premises. 


Yacht  Repairs  given  Prompt  Attention. 


Telephone  No.  200,  East  Boston. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


»*>• 


••A  PERFECT  FOOD —  as  Wholesome  as 
it  Is  Delicious." 


WalterBaKer&llois^ 

Breakfast  t 


t 


THE  STANDARD  FOR 
PURITY  AWD 
EXCELLENCE.... 


T  It  A  I  •  r  H  A  H  H 


r 
c 
c 
c 
r 

Costs  less  than  one  cent  a  cup  C 

Oar  Tride-Hark  on  Ererj  Packuc  v 

Walter  Baker  &  Co.  ^td.  ^ 

1  DORCHESTER,  HASS.  f 

^  ESTABLISHED    I780.  ^ 


E 


Fair   Profits  and  No 

Ml.sRKPRESENTAIIONS. 


fi^e  Are  Pleased 


To  be  of  service  and  assist- 
ance to  those  who  are  doing 
the  good  work,  that  this  publi- 
cation is  the  organ  of,  and 
shall  be  pleased  to  have  you 
reciprocate  by  buying  any- 
thing vou  want  that  comes 
from  Japan,  China,  or  India 
of  us,  and  remember  that 
ours  is 

The  Place  to  buy  Rugs. 


IV alter  M.  Hatch  ^  Co., 

^j  and  yj  Summer  Street. 


t8,-i. 


1899. 


Boston 

Young   Men's 

Christian 

Union, 

48   BoYLSTOiN  Street 
(near  trcmont). 

I'.vENiNG  Classes 

Weekly 

Entertainments. 

Employment  Bureau. 

"  Practical  Talks." 

Public 
Religious  Services. 

LIBR.ARY,   OVER    15,000  VOLUMES. 


Membership,  5i  per  Year. 


GYMNASIUM   (large  and  spacious). 

FULLY  equipped  WITH   UP-TO-DATE  APPARATUS. 

Terms,  S5  and  $8  per  year,  according  to  hours  of 
c.vcrcise. 

Wm.    H.   li.\r  r>wtN,   Prt-sidiTit.  (iFi'RCF  Pf.irck,  Sfcretan'. 


^    ■^<f>    -;^ 


..^^^ 


%r 


,c<^     cP 


u 


o 


.n 


><. 


^o- 


^^^^.^^"  .K-^^^ 


-^'--^  .<-V,,r 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Upham's    Corner    Stable    Co. 

N.    ETHIER,    Manager. 
Successor  to  ALLARD. 

Mack,  Boarding, 

and  Livery  Stable, 

No.  767   Dudley   Street, 
Dorchester,  Mass, 

Telephone,  248-2  Dorchester. 


reserve:d 


This  is  the  day  of  economy.      Every  unnecessary 

9T'f^  T  motion  is  cut  off.  Even'  second  of  time  is  crowded 
with  accomplishment.  The  successful  man  trains 
his  mind  to  discriminate,  to  throw  out  useless  thoughts,  to  combine 
and  condense. 

A  few  years  ago  one  had  to  remember  where  he 
kept  glue,  twine,  fasteners,  rubber  bands,  small  labels, 
large  labels,  small  tags,  large  tags  and  adhesive  paper, — 
nine  articles. 

Granting  science  the  brain-cell  theory,  here  were 
nine  cells  at  work  on  what  one  cell  now  does  easily 
with  the  aid  of  Dennison's  "Handy-Box.** 

This  is  a  compact  chest  divided  into  compartments  containing 
the  above  list  of  nine  indispensable,  every-day-in-the-week  articles. 
Bought  separately,  they  would  cost  %\ .  lo.  But  you  get  the  Handy- 
Box  complete  for  75  cents. 

DENNISON  MFG.  CO.,   Makers, 

26   Franklin  Street,   Boston. 
"A  woman  is  as  old  as  she  looks." 

Mrs.   Lucy   Stevens    Porter, 
masseuse, 

WILL    DO 

Shampooing,         Manicuring,  Scalp  and  Facial 

Treatments,         Hair  Dressing,    and  Superficial 

Massage  at  your  residence. 

For  further  particulars  address  at 
35   Rutland  Square,   Boston. 


Raymond  &  Whitcomb, 

Ticket   Office. 

Railroad  and  Steamship  Tickets  and  reser- 
vations to  all  points. 

TOURS  TO  ALL  RESORTS. 

Ra^'mond    &   Whitcomb, 

296   Washington  Street,   Boston,   Mass. 


CHAS.    H.    STREETER, 

MERCHANT     TAILOR, 
50   Bromfield  Street,  Boston. 


RESERVED 


ESTABLISHED     I  8  62. 


R.  &   E.   F.   Gleason, 
Furnishing  Undertakers 
and    Embalmers. 


OFFICE    AND     WAREROOMS  : 


33  5  Washington  Street,   corner  Harvard, 
Dorchester  District,    Boston. 


Telephone   Connection. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


"Jenness  Miller" 

SHOES. 

We  have  estabtished  a  ••Special'* 
department  for  the  exclusive  sale  of 
the  *'Jcnncss  Miller"  shoes  for 
women. 

It  has  remained  for  a  woman  to  de- 
vise the  shape  of  a  perfect  and  com- 
fortable shoe.  Mrs.  Jenncss  Miller 
has  given  her  life  to  the  study  of 
Higher  Physical  Culture  and  Im- 
provement of  Dress  for  women. 

These  shoes  represent  her  idea  of 
what  a  woman  should  wear.  They 
are  the  most 

COMFORTABLE,     DURABLE,   AND 

GRACEFUL  SHOES  MADE. 

We  are  sole  agents  for  the  ••Jenness 
Miller"  shoe  for  this  city.  A  trial 
will  convince  you  of  their  all-around 
supCTiority  over  any  other  shoe  on 
the  market  to-day. 

We  have  all  sizes  from  2  1-2  to  7, 
width  A  A  to  E,  madcof  ••Vclvctta" 
Kid,  Box  Calf,  Tan  Russia  Leather 
and  Patent  Calf 


Price  SJ-jO. 


B.    SOMMER  &   Co., 

44  and  46  Winter  Sircct,  Boston,  M.\--. 


ni  ** 

*  A  Refrigerator  that  has  a  jJJ 

*  reputation  back  of  it.  9 
{       A  W 

I  The  Eddy  I 

2  t^47  l»  >!i99-  d> 


Solid,  compact,  and  made  in  the  best 
possible  manner. 

$      Felting  on  All  Doors  and  Inside 
Covers. 
Solid  Slate-stone  Shelves. 

I'ERKECT  DRY-AIR    CIRCULATION. 

O.NCE  USE  THE  EDDY,  and  you  will 

USE    NO    OTHER. 
ILLUSTRATED    CATALOGUE    FREE. 


MANUFACTURED    BY 


%  D.  Eddy  &  Sons,  Boston,  Mass.  % 

T  336   Adams  Street,    Dorchester  District.  ^ 


Fine   Catering 

in  all  its 
Branches 


Ice- 
creams 
and  Ices, 
Tahle  Deli- 
cacies.      J* 
«■*     Plain  and 
I'ancy    Breads, 
Rolls,  Soup  Sticks. 

Fine  China,  Glassware, 
Silver,  and  Table  Linen  to  Let. 

Talbot   Ave,    Dorchester. 

TcJephonc,    Dorchatrr    3;6. 


Eve ty  cook  knov^s 
w/io/  io  cxpectof 

SQUIRES 

PURE  LEAF  LARD 

JoJinPSqu/re  ci  ^Bosion 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Amateur   Photographers ! 

Do  you  want  the  best  work  in   Boston  ? 

35  X  3^  films  developed,  30  cts.  a  dozen. 

Blair    Films   a   specialty. 

When  we  say  best,  we  mean  it. 

E.  A.  PAULINE, 

High-grade    Photo    Printer, 

333   Washington    Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


Sun  and 
Rain 

Soon  demoralize  a 

cheap    hat.      Get 

"*"""""""..:.„„.„ one     that    stands 

storms  and  sunshine.      Get  one  of 

Chamberlain's  "Beaconsfield" 

$3.00  DERBYS. 
they  are  warranted  fast  color, 

665  Washington  St.,  Boston.       Three  doors  south  of  Boylston  St. 


John  S.  Badger.  John  C.  Lowd. 


Edwin  P.  Burleigh. 


MELVIN   &   BADGER, 

Druggists  and  Apothecaries, 
43   Temple  Place,   Boston. 

A  complete  line  of  English  Military  Hair  Brushes  in 
leather  cases  constantly  on  hand. 

Also  a  full  line  of  Mediterranean  Sponges,  Hair, Tooth, 

Nail,  and  Flesh  Brushes,  Combs,  Ivorv  Goods,  Toilet 

Soaps,  etc. 


NORRIS    BROTHERS, 

DEALERS    IN 

Choice    Provisions    and    Groceries   of 

all   kinds. 

Fruits  and  Vegetables.      Fresh  Eggs  received  direct. 

Fine  Teas  and  Coffees  a  specialty. 

1673  to  1679  Washington  Street,  corner  Worcester 
Street,  City. 

587  to  593  Washington  Street,  Dorchester. 


Twenty  years'  experience  at  the  head  of  the  watch- 
adjusting  department  of  The  E.  Howard 
Watch  and  Clock  Co. 

Henry  N.  Allen, 

Watchmaker, 
433  Washington  Street, Boston. 

Elevator,  3  Winter  Street,  Room  1 7. 


RESERVED 


J.  A.  HATHAWAY   &   CO., 

Dealers    in 

Beef,  Pork,  Lard, 

Hams,  Tallow,  etc., 

37  AND  39  Faneuil  Hall  Market, 
BOSTON. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Millinery. 

Miss  M.   E.   HOGAN, 

Special  care  given  to  order  work. 

Modiste, 

M.    C.    COBB, 

Field  Building,  Field's  Corner, 

A.   C.    MERRILL, 

DORCHESTER. 

149  A  Tremont  Street,  Boston. 

Room   12. 

Compliments  of 

THE    BARDEN    CYCLE    CO., 

1449  Dorchester  Avenue, 

Dorchester. 

"We  give  the  most  change  back." 

THAT   IS   WHY   YOU   SHOULD  BUY   YOUR 

DRUG    STORE    GOODS 

of  US.     Lowest  cut  prices  and  highest  quality  our  motto. 

Wc  <)uote  a  few  articles  to  show  the  truth  of  our  stitcmcnt:  — 
Lactated  Food,  19c.,  39c.,  74c.;  Scott's  KmuUion,  38c.,  73c.; 

Sanford's    Ginger,     z8c.;    Citrate    Magnesia    Granules,     iSc.    Jb.; 

Malted  Milk,  3SC.,  74c.,  $3;   Minard's  Liniment,  15c.;  Castoria, 

iic;    IJromo  Seltzer,  loc,  20c.,  40c.,  75c.;    McUin's  Food,  34c., 

54c.;  Cod  Liver  Oil,  Pure  Norwegian,  35c.  pint. 

Prescriptions  our  specialty  at  the  lowest  prices. 

E.  M.  GARDNER    &   COMPANY. 

THREE    stores: 

152^  Woihington  Street  (The  Sanford),  863  Harrison  Avenue, 
S^    Knceland  Street,  Hunton. 

Patrick  Kehoc, 

Practical  Horscs/ioer, 

1221  Dorchester  Avenue, 

Dorchester. 
Near  Glover's  Corner. 


WARREN 
REAL    ESTATE    EXCHANGE, 

1514  Dorchester  Ave.,  near  Park  St. 

Telephone,  2  Dorchester. 

Real  Estate,  Mortgages. 
Fire,  Like,  and  .Accident  Insurance. 

JuHN  H.  VVarbkn,  Manager. 

H.    B.   ROBINSON, 

HAY,    GRAIN,    AND    STRAW. 

POULTRY    KOOD, 
MINERAL   SALT. 

Adams   and    Park   Streets,   Dorchester. 
telephone. 

WTLLIAM    \\    MURPHY, 

WRAl'lMNG    PAFKR,  HACJS,    AND 

twink, 

14  Dunmore  Street,  .   .  .   Ro.\bury,  Mass. 
telephone,  268-2  ROXni'RY. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Waterman's 
Ideal 
Fountain 
Pen 

Always  gives  Perfect  Satisfaction. 

Makes  an  ideal 

GIFT 
and  an  acceptable 
PRESENT. 
Choice  Assortment  ! 

Latest  Designs  ! 


ALL     DEALERS, 

OR     WRITE     FOR     CATALOGUE. 


L.    E.    Waterman    Co., 

Largest  P'ountain  Pen  Manufacturers  in  tlie  World. 

Nos.    155   AND    157   Broadway, 

New  York,   N.Y. 


RESERVED 


Albert  Fellows, 

GROCER   AND 
TEA    DEALER. 

AGENT    FOR 

NoBscoT   Mt.    Spring   Water. 
Full  assortment  of 

Preserves, 

Pickles,  and 

Olives. 

1872  Dorchester  Ave., 
Ashmont, 
DORCHESTER,  MASS. 

Telephone,  Dorchester  54-2. 


Compliments   of 

J.    B.    COLE    &    SON, 

UNDERTAKERS. 

South   Boston   and   Dorchester. 


cO 


-J 

u 
'-> 

D 
O 

E 

w 

O 

Z 

h 

u 
u 


The 

DORCHESTER 

BOOK 


ILLUSTRATED 


BOSTON 

GEORGE  H.   ELLIS,   PRINTER,   17J  CONGRESS  STREET 

1899 


PUBLISHED     BY    THE 

BRANCH   ALLIANCE 

or 

CHRIST    CHURCH    (UNITARIAN) 

DORCHESTER,    MASS. 
1899 


CONTENTS. 


PAG* 


Dorchester's  Principia William  Dana  Orcutt  5 

Around  Dorchester  Bay \V.  B.  E.  10 

English  Dorchester Edwin  J.  Lewis,  Jr.  12 

Highways  and  Byways Mary  C.  Eddy  15 

The  First  Parish,  Dorchester Virginia  Holbrook  17 

A  Wonderful  Deliverance Benjamin  A.  Goodridge  22 

The  Progress  of  Education  in  Dorchester      .     .     .      Richard  C.  Humphreys  24 

Some  of  our  Churches 29 

The  Everett  House Edward  E.  Hale,  D.D.  31 

The  Birthday  of  Dorchestkr 34 

Early  Industries Elizabeth  IV.  Hazard  36 

Dorchester  Heights 40 

The  Dorchester  Women's  Club Harriet  E.  Bean  42 

Lucy  Stone Alice  Stone  Blackzvell  44 

The  Oldest  Apple-trees 45 

Two  OR  Three  Clubs 46 

The  Dorchester  Symphony Coletta  Ryan  48 

The  Dorchester  Medical  Club Samuel  Croivell,  M.D.  50 

Landmarks Edward  W.  McGlencn  5 1 

Institutions 56 

Dorchester  Historical  Society Charles  Hodgdoit  c/ 

Historical  Sketch  of  Dorchester  Sicai 59 

Editorial 60 


DOCHESTER'S  PRINCIPIA. 

S  time  goes  on,  and  the  long-honored  name  of  Dorchester  becomes  more  and 
more  merged  into  the  less  distinguished  epithet  of  "Wards  i6,  20  and  24," 
it  is  well  to  pause  for  a  moment  and  look  backward,  to  recall  the  distinct 
individuality  which  raised  the  town  to  the  proud  position  it  held  before  the 
voracious  municipality  claimed  it  as  a  part  of  Greater  Boston.  The  rapid  growth  of 
Dorchester  has  filled  its  limits  with  a  new  people,  who  have  played,  and  are  playing,  their 
part  well  in  the  more  recent  development,  but  who  have  naturally  been  but  slightly 
acquainted  with  the  individual  characteristics  which  not  only  made  the  town  famous, 
but  even  extended  its  influence  throughout  the  country.  In  establishing  the  first  town 
government,  and  in  founding  the  first  free  public  school,  supported  by  a  direct  tax  upon 
the  people,  Dorchester  earned  its  right  to  pre-eminence  among  the  early  settlements. 

We  all  remember  the  devout  Christian  who  called  attention  to  the  divine  foresight 
in  providing  that  the  greatest  harbors  and  the  largest  rivers  should  be  located  near  the 
most  prominent  cities.  It  was  a  lack  of  this  foresight  on  the  mortal  side  which  pre- 
vented Dorchester  from  being  the  metropolis  and  Boston  the  suburb;  for  Dorchester 
Bay  proved  inadequate  to  the  commercial  requirements  of  the  early  settlers,  and  a  month 
after  the  landing  a  portion  of  the  pioneers  established  themselves  at  Shawmut,  as  Boston 
was  first  called.  Thus  Dorchester,  although  the  first  settlement  in  what  is  now  Suffolk 
County  and  the  largest  town  in  New  England,  contributed  to  the  Shawmut  settlement 
the  nucleus  from  which  grew  the  city  which  finally  swallowed  it  up.  In  1666  the  town 
included  all  the  territory  of  the  present  towns  of  Milton,  Dedham,  Dorchester  Heights, 
Washington  Village,  Hyde  Park,  Canton,  Stoughton,  Sharon,  Fo.xboro,  and  a  part  of 
Wrentham  —  a  site  thirty-five  miles  long,  and  running  to  within  one  hundred  and  sixty 
rods  of  the  Rhode  Island  line. 

It  is  a  severe  portrait  which  the  first  two  years  of  the  colony  present  to  us.  The 
New  England  of  two  hundred  and  seventy  years  ago  did  not  offer  a  kindly  settlement  to 
the  brave  emigrants  who  sought  to  break  into  its  austerity.  The  ground  had  to  be 
cleared  before  even  the  rude  huts  could  be  erected,  the  trees  felled  before  a  space  could 
be  found  to  plant  the  seeds  necessary  to  prevent  starvation.  On  the  coast  the  settlers 
found  nothing  to  break  their  desolation.  Wet  meadows  and  oozy  creeks  prevented  them 
from  going  in  one  direction,  while  unfordable  tide-water  rivers  interfered  with  their 
progress  in  another.  Utterly  ignorant  of  the  character  of  the  country,  it  is  not  strange 
that  imagination  added  to  the  real  terrors  which  surrounded  them,  and  made  them  feel 
that  safety  was  nowhere  to  be  found.  Added  to  this  was  the  terror  of  rattlesnakes,  with 
which  the  country  swarmed,  and  of  dangerous  animals  that  prowled  about  by  night.  The 
Indians,  too,  whose  disposition  toward  the  white  men  was  entirely  unknown,  were  a 
source  of  anxiety  night  and  day. 

Fortunately,  we  have  had  preserved  to  us  a  record  of  some  of  these  trying  days,  and 
to  read  Captain  Clap's  "  Memoirs "  is  to  realize  most  fully  the  cause  of  Dorchester's 
prominence.  "  Pietate,  Uteris,  industria,"  the  motto  now  found  upon  the  town  seal,  truly 
expresses  the  dominant  virtues  of  those  eaily  settlers. 


6  The  Dorchester  Book 

Captain  Clap  writes:  "Oh  ye  Hunger  that  many  suffered,  and  saw  no  hope  in  an 
Eye  of  Reason  to  be  supplyed,  only  by  Clams,  &  Muscles,  and  Fish ;  and  Bread  was  so 
very  Scarce,  that  sometimes  ye  very  crusts  of  my  Father's  Table  would  have  been  very 
Sweet  unto  me :  And  when  I  could  have  Meal  &  Water  &  Salt,  boiled  together,  it  was  so 
good,  who  could  wish  better  ?  And  it  was  not  accounted  a  strange  thing  in  those  Days 
to  Drink  water,  and  to  eat  Sawp  or  Homiiie  without  Butter  or  Milk.  Indeed  it  would 
have  been  a  strange  thing  to  see  a  piece  of  Roast  Beef,  Mutton  or  Veal ;  tho'  it  was  not 
long  before  there  was  roast  Goat!'  * 

Again  Captain  Clap  says  :  "  And  in  those  days,  in  our  Straits,  though  I  cannot  say 
God  sent  a  Raven  to  feed  us,  as  He  did  the  Prophet  Elijalt,  yet  this  I  can  say  to  the 
Praise  of  God's  Glory,  that  He  sent  not  only  poor,  ravenous  Indians,  which  came  with 
their  Baskets  of  Corn,  on  their  Backs  to  trade  with  us,  which  was  a  good  Supply  unto 
many  ;  but  also  sent  Ships  from  Holland  and  from  Ireland  with  Provisions,  and  Indian 
Corn  from  Virginia,  to  supply  the  Wants  of  his  dear  Servants  in  this  Wilderness,  both 
for  Food  and  Rayment."  f 

It  would  not  have  been  remarkable  if  these  unexpected  privations  had  made  some 
of  the  colonists  wonder  if  they  had  improved  their  lot ;  but  Captain  Clap  again  writes  : 
"  I  do  not  remember  that  ever  I  did  wish  in  my  Heart  that  I  had  not  come  into  this 
Country,  or  wish  myself  back  again  to  my  Father's  House :  Yea  I  was  so  far  from  that, 
that  I  wished  and  advised  some  of  my  dear  Brethren  to  come  hither  also ;  which  accord- 
ingly one  of  my  Brothers  and  those  two  that  married  my  two  Sisters,  sold  their  Means 
and  came  thither."  % 

In  spite  of  this  suffering  the  minds  of  the  early  fathers  were  ever  turned  from  the 
physical  to  the  intellectual  and  the  spiritual  necessities.  So  it  was  that  during  the  third 
year  of  the  colony  the  need  of  municipal  organization  became  apparent,  and  the  first 
special  town  government  in  New  England  was  established.  This  important  order  is 
dated  Oct.  8,  1633,  and  reads  as  follows:  — 

"  Imprimis  it  is  ordered  that.  For  the  generall  good  and  well  ordering  of  the  affayres 
of  the  Plantation  their  shall  be  every  Mooneday  before  the  Court  by  eight  of  the  Clocke 
in  the  morning,  and  p'sently  upon  the  beating  of  the  drum,  a  generall  meeting  of  the 
inhabitants  of  the  Plantation  att  the  meeteing-house,  there  to  settle  (and  sett  downe)  such 
orders  as  may  tend  to  the  generall  good  as  aforesayd :  and  every  man  to  be  bound  thereby 
without  gaynesaying  or  resistance.  It  is  also  agreed  that  there  shall  be  twelve  men 
selected  out  of  the  Company  that  may  or  the  greatest  p't  of  them  meete  as  aforesayd  to 
determine  as  aforesayd,  yet  so  as  is  desired  that  the  most  of  the  Plantation  will  keepe  the 
meeteing  constantly  and  all  that  are  there  although  none  of  the  Twelve  shall  have  a  free 
voyce,  as  any  of  the  12  and  that  the  greate[r]  vote  both  of  the  12  and  the  other  shall  be 
of  force  and  efficasy  as  aforesayd.  And  it  is  likewise  ordered  that  all  things  concluded  as 
aforesayd  shall  stand  in  force  and  be  obeyed  untill  the  next  monethly  meeteing,  and  after- 
wardes  if  it  be  not  contradicted  and  other  wise  ordered  upon  the  sayd  monethly  meete[ing] 
by  the  greatest  p'te  of  those  that  are  p'sent  as  aforesayd."  § 

It  is  not  definitely  known  by  what  method  the  lands  were  distributed  among  the  first 
settlers  of  the  town,  but  it  is  probable  that  the  private  means  and  the  size  of  the  families 

•  Blake's  Annals  of  the  Town  of  Dorchester,  p.  ii  (i8.(6).  t  Memoirs  of  Captain  Roger  Clap,  p.  30  (1846), 

;  Ibid.,  p.  20  (1846).  §  Dorchester  Town  Records,  p.  3  ("879). 


Dorchester's  Principia  7 

were  taken  into  consideration.  Several  of  the  largest  land-holders  were  those  who  held 
stock  in  England  under  the  patent.  Each  stockholder  to  the  amount  of  jCso  was  en- 
titled to  an  immediate  dividend  of  two  hundred  acres,  a  "  home  lot "  in  America,  and  fifty 
acres  for  each  member  of  his  family.  Those  who  did  not  possess  stock  could  claim  fifty 
acres  for  the  head  of  the  family,  and  as  much  more  as  the  governor  and  council  might 
award.      Fifty  acres  were  to  be  given  to  the  master  for  every  servant  transported  to  this 

colony. 

Before  sailing  for  America,  the  colonists  had  determined  that  for  purposes  of  mutual 
protection  they  must  build  closely  together ;  and  this  decision  was  wisely  adhered  to.  A 
certain  amount  of  territory  was  laid  out  into  four,  six,  and  eight  acre  house  lots  ;  and  larger 
grants  were  made  elsewhere  for  farming  purposes.  This  arrangement  kept  the  inhabi- 
tants closely  together,  and  gave  a  road  around  several  comparatively  small  pieces  of  land. 
Care  was  taken  to  keep  the  right  of  way  to  the  sea  and  to  the  marshes,  so  that  hay  could 
be  easily  obtained. 

When  the  government  was  fairly  established,  the  next  thought  was  for  the  school. 
With  the  present  wonderful  educational  system,  it  is  hard  to  realize  that  there  was  a  time 
when  the  free  *  public  school  was  unknown,  and  harder  still  to  realize  that  this  thought 
should  have  emanated  from  those  whom  we  are  accustomed  to  regard  as  the  representa- 
tives of  bigotry  and  narrowness.  The  record  of  this  has  now  become  history,  and  is  of 
especial  interest. 

Thompson's  Island,  still  known  by  the  same  appellation,  was  granted  to  Dorchester 
by  the  General  Court  in  1635  ;  and  four  years  later  the  town  voted  to  lay  a  tax  of  .3^20 
upon  the  proprietors  of  this  island  "for  the  maintenance  of  a  school  in  Dorchester." 
Those  who  paid  rent  numbered  one  hundred  and  twenty  persons,  including  the  principal 
part  of  the  adult  male  population.  This,  as  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  was  the  first  public 
provision  made  for  a  free  school  in  America,  by  a  direct  tax,  or  assessment,  on  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  town.  The  law  itself  is  found  in  the  Dorchester  Town  Records,  under  the 
date  of  May  20,  (O.  S.)  1639:  — 

"  There  shalbe  a  rent  of  20'"  yeerely  foreu'  imposed  vpon  Tomsons  Hand  to  bee  payd 
p  euy  p'son  that  hath  p'prtie  in  the  said  Hand  according  to  the  p'portion  that  any  such 
p'son  shall  fro  tyme  to  tyme  inioy  and  posesse  there,  and  this  towards  the  mayntenance 
of  a  schoole  in  Dorchest'  this  rent  of  20''  yeerly  to  bee  payd  to  such  a  schoolemaster  as 
shall  undertake  to  teach  english  latin  and  othe'  tongues,  and  also  writing  the  sayd  school- 
maste  to  bee  chosen  fro  tyme  to  tyme  by  the  freemen  and  that  is  left  to  the  discretion  of 
ciders  and  the  7  men  for  the  tyme  beeing  whether  maydes  shalbe  taught  with  the  boyes 
or  not.  For  the  levying  this  20''  yeerely  fro  the  p'ticuler  p'sons  that  ought  to  pay  that 
according  to  this  order.  It  is  farther  ordered  that  somme  man  shalbe  apoynted  by  the  7 
men  for  the  tyme  beeing  to  Receiue  that  and  refusall  to  levyc  that  by  distresse,  and  not 
fynding  distresse  such  p'son  as  so  refuseth  payment  shall  forfeit  the  land  he  hath  in 
p'prietie  in  the  sayd  Island." 

The  first  school-house  was  situated  on  what  has  been  known  as  "Settlers'  Street," 
near  the  corner  of  the  present  Pleasant  and  Cottage  Streets,  and  consisted  of  a  single 
room  formed  by  four  walls  poorly  constructed,  and  a  roof  which  barely  did  its  duty.     It 

*The  UM  of  the  word  "  free"  u  applied  lo  the  finl  public  school  is  apt  to  be  misleading.  "  A  free  schooP  in  the  early  dayt  was  not  an 
butitutioo  is  which  tlie  pupils  were  exempted  Irom  payioK  tuition,  but  one  which  was  lre«  to  all  classes. 


8  The  Dorchester  Book 

was  natural  that  controversy  should  have  arisen  as  to  the  fitness  of  the  building ;  but 
it  was  used  until  1694,  when  steps  were  taken  to  provide  more  suitable  accommodations. 
A  contract  was  made  with  one  John  Trescot  to  build  a  house  twenty  feet  long  and 
nineteen  feet  wide,  with  a  ground  floor  and  a  chamber  above,  a  flight  of  stairs  and  a 
chimney.  The  contract  required  the  building  to  be  boarded  and  clapboarded ;  to  be 
filled  up  between  the  studs ;  to  be  fully  covered  with  boards  and  shingles ;  and  to  be 
completed  before  Sept.  29,  1694.  As  a  recompense  for  his  work,  Trescot  was  to 
receive  the  glass,  lock  and  key,  hooks  and  hinges  of  the  old  school-house,  and  ^^22  in 
current  New  England  money. 

The  early  settlers  took  great  personal  interest  and  pride  in  their  schools,  and  gave 
liberally  to  its  support.  The  earliest  gift  was  a  legacy  from  John  Clap  in  1655.  This 
land,  situated  at  South  Boston  Point,  was  sold  in  1835  for  ^13,590.62.*  Another  be- 
quest, made  by  Christopher  Gibson  in  1674,  now  amounts  to  more  than  twenty  thousand 
dollars,  yielding  a  yearly  income  of  ;^  1,400;  and  much  of  the  land  is  still  held  in  trust  for 
the  benefit  of  the  schools.  The  sum  of  jCiso  which  Lieutenant  Governor  Stoughton 
contributed  toward  the  support  of  the  schoolmaster  has  now  grown  to  be  more  than 
five  thousand  dollars.  John  Gomel,  Hopestill  Foster,  and  Governor  James  Bowdoin 
also  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  school. 

A  comparison  of  the  religious  history  of  the  early  settlers  of  Massachusetts  with  their 
civil  records  shows  that  the  two  are  almost  identical.  The  church  was  the  corner-stone 
of  the  community,  and  in  it  all  other  interests  centred.  The  first  act  of  the  Dorchester 
company  about  to  set  sail  on  the  "Mary  and  John"  from  Old  Plymouth  had  been  to 
associate  themselves  into  church  fellowship ;  and  the  prominent  place  given  to  religion 
at  this  early  date  is  long  manifested  in  the  lives  of  the  people. 

For  several  years  after  the  settlement  of  the  Plantation  the  business  affairs  appear 
to  have  been  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  ministers  and  two  deacons  of  the  church,  who, 
together,  made  all  deeds  of  land.  The  church  decreed  it  unlawful  to  build  a  house  more 
than  half  a  mile  from  the  "  meeting-house."  It  regulated  the  style  of  dress  ;  it  examined 
into  and  restricted  even  the  private  life  of  the  people ;  in  short,  as  a  writer  has  said, 
"  the  church  was  the  government,  and  religion  was  the  law."  This  authority  which 
the  church  assumed  was  democratic  rather  than  ecclesiastical.  The  people  were  free 
and  independent,  and  they  voluntarily  placed  the  church  in  command  because  they 
believed  that  religion  was  the  chief  concern  of  life. 

The  first  meeting-house  was  built  in  1631,  and  was  situated  near  the  corner  of 
Pleasant  and  East  Cottage  Streets,  on  Allen's  Plain,  at  the  north  end  of  the  town.  It 
was  a  low  building,  consisting  of  one  story  about  twelve  feet  in  height,  and  was  con- 
structed of  logs  and  thatch.  Palisadoes  surrounded  it,  and  military  stores  were  deposited 
in  it.  Guns  were  mounted  on  the  roof,  and  a  sentinel  kept  on  guard,  so  that  it  served 
as  a  place  of  refuge  and  defence  against  the  Indians.  The  first  day  of  the  week  the 
colony  held  its  meetings  as  a  church,  and  the  second  day  of  the  week  as  a  town.  The 
inhabitants  conveyed  thither  their  plate  and  most  valuable  articles  every  evening,  to  be 
preserved  with  safety. 

The  church  life  of  those  early  days  and  even  well  into  the  present  century  was  in 
distinct  contrast  with  the  modern  comforts  of  Sunday  worship.     In  the  early   colonial 

*  Suffolk  Deeds,  lib.  39a,  fol.  170. 


r 

-*  « 

.  ij — , 

^-^k:^ 

Ip^SbI 

^lif^ 

X""- 

^^  ~^R^^^H 

tm 

JflT^t;: 

u.^  ; 

^9 

li^-' 

'    ■« 

m 

^ 

Dorchester's  Principia  9 

days,  for  instance,  the  churches  had  no  stoves  ;  and  the  pious  worshippers  were  com- 
pelled to  sit  through  these  long  services  with  nothing  more  comfortable  than  foot- 
warmers,  which  were  brought  from  home.  In  the  F"irst  Parish  as  late  as  1820  these 
foot-warmers  were  given  into  the  charge  of  "  Uncle  Daniel "  Davenport,  the  sexton. 
It  was  a  familiar  sight  for  many  years  to  see  Uncle  Daniel  and  his  son  enter  the  church 
on  Sunday  mornings  and  distribute  the  foot-warmers  in  the  various  pews.  Judge  Sewall 
records  in  his  diary  instances  when  the  congregation  must  have  suffered  greatly  from 
the  frigid  atmosphere.  " The  communion-bread  was  frozen  pretty  hard,"  he  says,  "and 
rattled  sadly  into  the  plates."  Again  he  writes:  "Extraordinary  cold  storm  of  wind  and 
snow.  Bread  frozen  at  the  Lord's  table,  yet  was  very  comfortable  at  meeting."  He 
refers  to  an  exceedingly  cold  Sunday,  when  there  was  "great  coughing"  in  meeting,  in 
spite  of  which  a  new-born  baby  was  brought  into  the  icy  church  to  be  baj^tized, —  it 
being  the  custom  to  carry  the  children  to  the  meeting-house  for  baptism  tlie  first  Sun- 
day after  they  were  born.  He  also  alludes  to  the  baptism  of  his  own  fourteen  children, 
not  one  of  whom  cried  out  even  in  the  coldest  weather,  being  "  true  examples  of  Puritan 
fortitude." 

In  the  space  at  the  disposal  of  the  writer,  it  has  been  impossible  to  give  more  than 
the  barest  outlines  of  the  fortitude,  the  foresight,  and  the  strength  of  character  which 
the  founders  of  the  town  possessed.  Their  determination  to  establish  the  settlement 
upon  a  foundation  of  rock  bore  its  fruit  throughout  succeeding  centuries,  and  the  part 
played  by  their  descendants  has  ever  been  a  creditable  one.  Foremost  in  establishing 
their  town  government,  in  anticipation  of  the  other  settlements  in  providing  for  the 
educational  needs  of  their  children,  and  steadfast  always  in  their  loyalty  to  the  church, 
the  early  fathers  bequeathed  the  same  characteristics  to  their  successors;  and  we  find 
these  in  evidence  throughout  the  history  of  the  town.  We  can  but  briefly  touch  on  tlie 
early  colonial  struggles  of  the  first  settlers.  We  cannot  follow  their  descendants  as  they 
assisted  in  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  oppression,  and  enjoyed  the  sweets  of  liberty.  We 
cannot  touch  on  the  creditable  position  taken  by  the  town  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion. 
We  can  only  glance  in  on  our  ancestors,  in  their  primitive  school  and  meeting-hou.se : 
we  cannot  examine  into  the  gradual  changes  which  have  given  their  children  more  en- 
lightenment and  greater  opportunities,  nor  study  the  history  and  the  romance  which 
have  become  associated  with  the  ancient  structures  which  served  as  landmarks  for  so 
many  years ;  and,  finally,  we  cannot  study  the  more  recent  events  which  would  show  us 
the  town  as  it  exists  today.  lUit  perhaps  from  what  has  been  recorded  the  great  lesson 
of  the  |iast  may  be  learned  and  appreciated,  inspiring  the  present  inhabitants  to  be  even 
better  citizens  because  of  the  principles  of  which  they  stand  as  representatives. 

Willi  A. M  Dana  Orcutt. 


AROUND  DORCHESTER  BAY. 


It  was  a  picturesque  scene  that  the  eyes  of  the  first  Dorchestrians 
rested  upon  when  their  little  vessel  dropped  anchor  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Neponset  River  in  1630.  Could  these  early  settlers  return  to 
earth  in  this  latter  part  of  the  nineteenth  century,  it  is  doubtful  if 
they  would  recognize  the  shores  to  which  civilization  has  brought  such 
marked  changes. 

It  is  equally  difficult  for  us,  to  whom  these  changes  have  come 
so  gradually,  to  imagine  the  graceful  lines  of  these  primeval  shores 
before  railroads  and  highways  had  been  built  to  mar  the  picturesque 
effect.  Then  the  winding  Neponset  could  be  followed  uninterrupted 
by  bridges  to  the  foot  of  the  Blue  Hills,  its  banks  being  inhabited  by  a 
tribe  of  Indians  from  whom  the  river  takes  its  name.  Savin  Hill  must 
have  stood  out  like  a  bold,  dark  promontory  surrounded  by  marshes, 
reaching  well  into  the  centre  of  the  present  populated  district.  Squan- 
tum,  across  the  bay,  also  stood  out  in  bold  relief,  the  dark  foliage  of 
the  savin-trees  and  cedars  making  a  strong  contrast  to  the  delicate 
greens  of  the  surrounding  marshes.  But  to-day  how  changed  all  these  features  appear ! 
The  curving  outlines  are  marred  or  destroyed.  Here  a  bridge,  a  roadway,  or  a  wharf, 
there  a  row  of  bath-houses,  a  gas  plant,  and  a  pumping-station.  All  of  these  are  neces- 
sities to  the  growing  population,  but  from  an  artistic  standpoint  must  be  deplored. 

On  entering  Dorchester  Bay  from  Boston  Harbor,  one  leaves  Thompson's  Island  on 
the  left.  This  beautiful  spot,  here  and  there  adorned  by  a  clump  of  trees,  is  used  as  a  farm 
school  for  orphan  lads.  On  rounding  the  island,  we  ne.xt  see  Squantum  Head,  on  the 
extreme  end  of  which  we  discover  the  profile  known  as  the  Squaw's  Head.  There  is 
a  legend  about  a  beautiful  Indian  woman  who,  being  disap- 
pointed in  love,  sprang  from  this  rock  into  the  sea.  Such  legends, 
however,  abound  among  the  ancient  haunts  of  the  red  men,  fre- 
quently with  little  of  truth  on  which  to  base  them.  Near  this 
rock  a  tower  of  stone  has  recently  been  reared  by  the  Daughters 
of  the  Revolution  to  commemorate  the  landing  of  Myles  Stan- 
dish,  which  was  supposed  to  have  been  on  this  headland.  It  was  here  that  "  Billy " 
Read  kept  his  tavern,  known  as  the  Old  Squantum  House,  where  famous  fish  dinners 
were  served  some  thirty  years  ago.  Recently  this  idea  has  been  revived  by  the  build- 
ing of  Squantum  Inn,  which  is  drawing  a  goodly  number  of  guests  during  the  summer 
months. 

F"or  many  years  two  great  industries  occupied  Commercial  Point,  which,  located  as  it 
was  near  the  deep  channel  of  the  Neponset  River,  offered  unusual  opportunities  for  ship- 
ping. Dearborn's  Iron  Foundry  turned  out  shafts  for  the  largest  steamboats,  and 
wrought  other  heavy  iron-work,  which  was  shipped  to  various  points  along  the  coast. 
Preston's  chocolate  factory  occupied  the  other  side  of  this  point,  and  was  for  years  the 
leading  manufactory  of  its  kind  in  the  State. 


Around  Dorchester  Bay 


II 


-""sj.-'Tt 


Dorchester  was  one  of  the  first  ports  on  the  coast  to  recognize  yachting  as  a  sport ; 
and  as  early  as  1865  there  were  three  pleasure  yachts  anchored  off  Harrison  Square, 
owned  respectively  by  Henry  Hilt,  Rufus  Gibbs,  and  Skipper  Innes.  These  were  fol- 
lowed soon  after  by  more  pretentious  craft,  among  them  the  sloop  "  Scud,"  which  a  few 
years  later  was  lost  off  Minot's  Light,  the  owner  and  two  friends  losing  their  lives.  In 
1866  the  Dorchester  Yacht  Club  was  formed  by  leading  citizens ;  and  among  its  founders 
were  the  well-remembered  names  of  Freeman, 
Boynton,  Davenport,  Drake,  Barnard,  Weston, 
and  many  others.  How  this  yacht  club  moved 
into  Boston  and  changed  its  name  to  Massa- 
chusetts, and  later  amalgamated  with  the  Hull 
Club,  is  too  recent  history  to  be  more  than 
mentioned  here.  The  old  name  was  immediately 
taken  by  a  new  organization,  many  of  the  older  members  joining  the  new  club  with 
the  old  name  rather  than  give  up  the  club-house  they  had  used  so  long. 

To-day  this  little  bay  is  crowded  with  pleasure  boats  of  all  kinds,  and  yacht  clubs 
have  sprung  up  in  every  locality ;  but  few  of  the  old-timers  are  left  who  remember  the 
infancy  of  a  sport  which  has  now  become  a  national  one.  Once  in  about  ten  years  the 
entire  bay  is  frozen  into  a  solid  mass  of  ice,  the  most  remarkable  year  in  the  remem- 
brance of  the  present  generation  being  1875.  On  the  22(1  of  February  in  that  year 
hundreds  of  sleighs  and  thousands  of  pedestrians  and  skaters  crossed  from  South  Boston 
to  Squantum.  Ice-boat  races  were  inaugurated,  and  the  scene  appeared  more  like  a  great 
lake  than  an  arm  of  the  ocean. 

Cow  Pasture,  or  Calf  Pasture,  as  it  was  sometimes  called,  and  Belzer's  Marshes  were 
formerly  famous  gunning  grounds,  marsh  birds  stopping  there  in  their  annual  flights, 
while  ducks  of  all  kinds  were  shot  each  fall  in  various  parts  of  the  bay.  In  the  early  days 
fishing  was  carried  on  extensively  from  these  shores,  cod  and  mackerel  being  caught 
within  easy  sailing  distance,  and  even  as  late  as  1850  bluefish  were  abundant  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Neponset  River.  Now,  with  the  exception  of  the  smelts,  which  are  much 
sought  for  by  pleasure  fishermen,  there  are  no  fish  in  the  bay,  and  the  Friday  dinners  of 
the  good  people  of  Dorchester  have  to  be  brought  from  far-off  waters. 

w.    B.    E. 


THE  ENGLISH  DORCHESTER. 

MONG  the  good  people  who  made  the  first  settlement  in  what  is  now  Suffolk 
County  "  were  some  of  Dorset  Shire  and  some  of  ye  Town  of  Dorchester." 
What  more  natural  than  that  they  should  select  for  their  nesv  home  in 
this  New  World  a  name  which  had  been  so  dear  to  them  beyond  the  seas, 
and  which  was  still  the  home  of  the  beloved  John  White, —  the  name  Dorchester? 

Okl  English  Dorchester,  which  was  thus  honored,  is  the  county  town  of  Dorsetshire, 
one  of  the  southernmost  counties  of  England,  bordering  on  the  English  Channel.  It  is  a 
place  of  great  antiquity,  so  old,  indeed,  that  its  earliest  history  still  affords  abundant 
scope  for  speculation  on  the  part  of  the  archaeologist. 

Without  entering  into  antiquarian  research,  we  may  safely  conclude  from  the  exten- 
sive fortified  works  in  the  neighborhood,  the  quantity  of  Celtic  and  Roman  remains  con- 
stantly being  unearthed,  and  the  numberless  burial-mounds  scattered  over  the  surround- 
ing hills  and  downs,  that  the  district  was  an  important  centre  of  population  as  far  back  as 
the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era,  and  probably  at  an  even  earlier  period. 

Our  first  real  glimpse  of  authentic  history  comes  with  the  Roman  invasion,  some- 
where about  the  year  50  B.C.,  when  Vespasian,  having  overcome  the  determined  resist- 
ance of  the  sturdy  Durotrieges,  who  inhabited  the  region,  established  here  on  the  site  of 
the  present  Dorchester  a  strong  military  station,  which  was  named  Durnovaria. 

The  Roman  town  was  encompassed  by  a  wall  twelve  feet  high  and  twelve  feet  thick, 
enclosing  an  area  of  eighty  acres,  about  twice  the  extent  of  Boston  Common.  A  small 
fragment  of  this  wall  still  remains ;  but  the  larger  part  of  it  was  levelled  early  in  the 
present  century,  and  in  its  place  were  built  broad  walks,  shaded  with  magnificent  elms, 
sycamores,  and  chestnuts. 

The  Roman  occupation  lasted  about  four  hundred  years.  Abundant  evidences  of  it 
are  found  in  the  tessellated  pavements,  coins,  statuettes,  and  other  relics  frequently  dug 
up.  The  most  impressive  memorial  of  the  Roman  occupation,  however,  is  the  great 
amphitheatre  situated  hardly  a  stone's  throw  from  the  town,  and  locally  known  as  the 
Maumbury  Rings.  This  amphitheatre  is  the  finest  of  its  kind  in  England,  and  probably 
dates  from  the  time  of  Agricola.  It  consists  of  a  gigantic  oval,  one  hundred  and  forty 
feet  in  diameter  the  shortest  way,  and  two  hundred  and  twenty  feet  the  longest  inside 
measurement,  surrounded  by  a  grass-covered  mound  some  thirty  feet  in  height  and  ten 
feet  wide  at  the  top.  Standing  on  this  velvety  parapet,  the  visitor  of  to-day  can  dimly 
trace  the  outlines  of  the  tiers  of  seats  rising  gradually  one  above  another,  and  capable 
of  seating  thirteen  thousand  spectators.  He  can  also  discern  the  probable  location  of 
the  cavece,  or  vaults,  for  the  gladiators  and  wild  beasts.  Standing  there,  it  is  not  difficult 
to  repeople  in  imagination  this  now  deserted  enclosure,  and  to  recall  the  tragic  scenes 
which  these  grass-grown  slopes  must  have  witnessed,  not  only  in  the  splendid  Roman 
days,  but  in  comparatively  modern  times,  when  thousands  have  looked  down  from  this 
vantage-ground  upon  sights  scarcely  less  revolting.  In  the  arena  for  many  years  stood 
the  gallows,  and  in  this  place  men  and  women  have  been  strangled  and  burnt. 


The  English  Dorchester  13 

During  the  constant  warfare  of  the  Saxon-Danish  period,  Dorchester  met  with  dis- 
asters both  frequent  and  terrible;  and  in  1003  it  was  besieged,  burnt,  and  almost 
completely  destroyed  by  Sweyn,  King  of  Denmark. 

Its  mediaeval  history  is  of  little  interest.  For  several  centuries  after  the  Roman 
conquest  we  hear  little  of  the  town,  except  that  it  continued  to  be  a  place  of  considerable 
importance,  and  a  favorite  hunting-ground  for  many  of  the  Norman  kings. 

During  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  many  Papists  suffered  martyrdom  here,  the  persecu- 
tion lasting  for  more  than  fifty  years. 

The  plague,  visiting  Dorchester  in  1595,  spread  death  and  desolation  among  the 
people,  and  carried  off  so  many  that  there  were  not  left  alive  sufficient  to  bury  the  dead. 
As  if  to  prove  that  misfortunes  never  come  singly,  before  the  town  had  fully  recovered 
from  this  affliction,  a  great  fire  destroyed  the  churches  of  Holy  Trinity  and  All  Saints, 
together  with  nearly  two  hundred  houses.  Since  that  time  three  other  conflagrations 
have  worked  havoc  in  the  place. 

During  the  Civil  Wars,  Dorchester  was  loyal  to  the  Parliament,  and  was  strongly 
fortified.  The  town  was,  however,  finally  surrendered  to  the  Earl  of  Carnarvon,  who  led 
the  king's  troops.  It  was  then  dismantled  of  its  defences,  and  occupied  in  turn  by 
Roundheads  and  Cavaliers;  but  until  the  close  of  the  conflict  it  remained  a  hot-bed  of 
rebellion  and  a  stanch  adherent  to  the  cause  of  Cromwell. 

One  of  the  most  revolting  incidents  in  the  history  of  Dorchester  was  the  horrible 
butchery  of  which  it  was  the  witness  during  the  "  Bloody  Assize"  held  here  by  the  in- 
famous Judge  Jeffreys  on  the  unhappy  people  implicated  in  the  Monmouth  Rebellion. 
Macaulay  tells  us  that  "  the  court  was  hung  .  .  .  with  scarlet,  and  this  innovation 
seemed  to  the  multitude  to  indicate  a  bloody  purpose.  It  was  also  rumored  that,  when 
the  clergyman,  who  had  preached  the  Assize  sermon,  enforced  the  duty  of  mercy,  the 
ferocious  mouth  of  the  judge  was  disturbed  by  an  ominous  grin.  These  things  made  men 
augur  ill  of  what  was  to  follow.  More  than  three  hundred  prisoners  were  to  be  tried. 
The  work  seemed  heavy,  but  Jeffreys  had  a  contrivance  for  making  it  light.  He  let  it 
be  understood  that  the  only  chance  of  obtaining  pardon  or  respite  was  to  plead  guilty. 
Twenty-nine  persons  who  put  themselves  on  their  country,  and  were  convicted,  were 
ordered  to  be  tied  u\i  without  delay.  The  remaining  prisoners  pleaded  guilty  by  scores. 
Two  hundred  and  ninety-two  received  sentence  of  death.  The  whole  number  hanged  in 
Dorsetshire  was  seventy-four."  The  judge's  chair  is  to  be  seen  in  the  Town  Hall  to  this 
day.     His  lodging  still  stands  in  High  West  Street. 

The  later  history  of  Dorchester  has  not  been  especially  eventful  ;  and,  with  this  brief 
review  of  the  past,  let  us  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  Dorchester  of  to-day. 

A  stranger  visiting  the  town  for  the  first  time  is  impressed  by  three  things, —  its 
picturesque  situation,  its  cleanliness,  and  its  air  of  prosperity.  Pleasantly  located  on 
rising  ground,  the  town  is  bordered  on  the  north  by  a  branch  of  the  river  Frome,  and  on 
the  other  three  sides  by  the  beautiful  shaded  avenues,  or  "  walks,"  already  referred  to, —  a 
feature  which  no  other  town  in  England  possesses  to  an  equal  extent.  The  trees  arc 
planted  quite  closely  together,  and  have  now  attained  such  great  size  that  their  branches, 
interlacing  overhead,  form  a  perfect  canopy,  through  which  the  midsummer  sun  can 
scarcely  penetrate.  Comfortable  seats  are  provided  at  intervals,  and  on  summer  after- 
noons and  evenings  the  walks  are  a  favorite  promenade  for  the  townspeople.  These, 
however,  are  not  the  only  places  provided  for  out-of-doors  recreation. 


14  The  Dorchester  Book 

The  Dorchester  Borough  Gardens  maintained  by  the  town  remind  the  Bostonian  of 
our  own  Public  Garden,  which  they  closely  resemble  both  in  area  and  general  arrange- 
ment. In  addition  to  the  flowers,  fountains,  and  shady  paths,  the  authorities  have 
here  provided  a  number  of  tennis  courts.  The  Town  Council  provides  the  nets,  and 
keeps  the  courts  in  perfect  order.  The  payment  of  six  cents  entitles  any  person  to  the 
use  of  them. 

Instead  of  the  familiar  warning,  "  Keep  off  the  grass,"  one  is  confronted  by  a  polite 
request,  "  Please  do  not  walk  on  the  grass."  The  latter  seems  to  be  quite  as  effective,  and 
sounds  far  less  inhospitable. 

Whether  due  to  these  opportunities  for  outdoor  exercise  or  on  account  of  the  pure 
and  bracing  air,  the  town  has  certainly  earned  for  itself  an  enviable  reputation  for  health- 
fulness.  Dr.  Arbuthnot,  who  in  his  early  days  came  to  settle  here,  did  not  stay  long. 
He  said,  "A  physician  can  neither  live  nor  die  at  Dorchester." 

In  the  olden  days  Dorchester  was  noted  for  her  cloth  ;  but  Leeds,  Birmingham,  and 
other  North  of  England  communities  have  robbed  her  of  this  industry,  and  she  now  relies 
for  revenue  principally  upon  agriculture  and  the  great  flocks  of  sheep  which  find  abundant 
sustenance  upon  the  neighboring  downs.  It  is  estimated  that  there  arc  nearly  a  million 
of  these  woolly  units  of  wealth  in  the  vicinity.  The  praise  of  Dorset  ale  has  been  sounded 
in  prose  and  verse.     It,  too,  is  made  in  Dorchester. 

In  view  of  its  turbulent  history  and  the  numerous  fiery  ordeals  through  which  the 
town  has  passed,  it  is  not  surprising  that  few  buildings  now  remain  which  can  lay  claim  to 
age.  In  fact,  there  are  but  two  of  importance, —  St.  Peter's  Church  and  Judge  Jeffreys's 
lodgings. 

St.  Peter's,  which  stands  at  the  junction  of  the  four  principal  streets,  is  a  fine  old 
parish  church  of  the  Perpendicular  period.  Its  stately  tower  contains  a  splendid  peal  of 
eight  bells  as  well  as  a  clock  and  chimes.  The  old  custom  of  tolling  the  curfew  is  still 
observed  here. 

Three  ancient  almshouses,  the  most  recent  dating  from  1615,  still  shelter  the  aged 
and  the  needy.  These  are  but  a  few  of  many  objects  of  interest  in  the  town  itself ;  while 
the  country  roundabout  is  dotted  over  with  numberless  relics  of  the  past,  which  would 
well  repay  a  visit. 

Dorchester  is  but  one  hundred  and  thirty-eight  miles  distant  from  London,  and  is 
easily  reached  by  either  the  Great  Western  or  South-western  Railway.  If  this  brief 
article  should  encourage  any  summer  pilgrim  to  tarry  for  a  little  in  old  Dorchester,  he  will 
be  sure  of  a  cordial  welcome.  The  hospitable  doors  of  the  "  King's  Arms  "  stand  open  to 
receive  him,  as  they  have  welcomed  so  many  others  during  the  past  century  and  a  half; 
and,  as  the  traveller  goes  on  his  way,  he  may  well  wonder  if  Dr.  Johnson  had  in  mind 
this  comfortable  old  house,  when  he  wrote,  "There  is  nothing  which  has  yet  been  con- 
trived by  man  by  which  so  much  happiness  is  produced  as  by  a  good  tavern,  or  inn." 

Edwin  J.  Lewis,  Jr. 


HIGHWAYS  AND  BYWAYS. 


HE  dear  old  lady  was  in  good  spirits  and  full  of  interesting  recollections  of  the 
-^      old  days  in  Dorchester  :  — 
^wL  "  My  grandfather  used  to  say  that  all  roads  led  to  the  meeting-house. 


I  wish  they  did,  but  am  sorry  to  say  they  do  not  now.  The  first  road  out 
here  in  Dorchester  ran  from  the  meeting-house  to  Rocky  Hill  (now  Savin  Hill).  In  my 
time  it  was  Old  Hill.  This  road  kept  on  through  what  is  now  Savin  Hill  Avenue.  An- 
other began  at  the  same  place,  ran  west  to  Five  Corners,  east  to  Calves'  Pasture  (now 
Pond  Street  and  Crescent  Avenue).  This  road  ran  on  from  Five  Corners  north-easterly 
toward  Great  Neck  (South  Boston).  This  road  lay  along  Little  Neck  (Boston  Street). 
It  had  a  gate  at  its  entrance ;  and  every  morning,  for  seven  months  in  the  year,  the  cows 
of  Dorchester  Plantation  were  driven  by  this  road  to  pasture.  An  hour  after  sunrise  a 
horn  was  blown,  calling  the  cows  together ;  and  woe  to  the  cow  that  was  not  on  hand  I 
She  got  no  pasturage  that  day,  and  likely  enough  her  owner  was  fined. 

"  There  used  to  be  a  street  that  curved  around  by  the  house  of  William  T.  An- 
drews, called  Chestnut  Street,*  I  think  ;  but  it  must  have  got  lost,  for  it  is  not  there  now. 
The  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  Roger  Williams,  and  others  lived  on  it.  The  road  around 
Jones's  Hill  is  now  Stoughton,  Pleasant,  and  Hancock  Streets;  and  from  there  a  road  led 
to  Israel  Stoughton's  mill.  It  is  now  Adams  Street,  and  runs  to  Quincy.  A  lane  led  from 
this  road  to  Penny  Ferry,  where  they  used  to  cross  the  Neponset  to  Quincy.  It  is  Marsh 
Street  now. 

"The  short  street  called  Houghton  Street  is  all  that  is  left  now  of  the  old  road  to 
the  Plymouth  Colony.  This  ran  around  Pope's  Hill,  crossed  what  is  now  Neponset  Ave- 
nue, and  was  finally  merged  into  the  straight  turnpike.     I  wish  we  had  kept  the  old 

names ;  for  Old  Hill  means  more  to  me 

than  Savin  Hill,  the  name  given  to  it 
away  back  in  1S22,  from  the  savins  on 
its  top.  It  was  Rocky  Hill  for  the  first 
hundred  years  of  the  Old  Colony,  and 
the  first  fort  to  defend  our  harbor  was 
built  here. 

"  The  southerly  part  of  Harrison 
Square  bore  the  name  'Captain's  Neck, 
or  '  Hawkins  Neck,'  in  honor  of  Captain 
Hawkins,  a  large  land-holder,  ship-builder,  and  navigator.  A  small  stream  that  crosses 
what  is  now  Columbia  Street  was  named  for  him,  also.  The  right  of  way  which  was  laid 
out  to  the  wharf  on  Wales  Creek  '  for  the  use  and  benefit  of  the  town '  is  now  Creek 
Street.  Port  Norfolk,  in  Old  Colony  times,  was  called  Pine  Neck  ;  and  that  makes  me 
think  of  the  terrible  time  the  people  there  had,  when  they  disagreed  about  the  name. 
Some  wanted  it  called  Neponset,  the  old  name,  which  includes  Dorchester  Lower  Mills ; 

*  Diicootiiiued  in  1859. 


i6 


The  Dorchester  Book 


MiLey  te  Bofton, 

/TiU 
H 


and  others  wanted  it  Port  Norfolk.  Such  a  time  as  there  was !  The  two  factions  almost 
came  to  blows.  It  was  several  months  before  the  hatchet  was  buried  and  peace  declared. 
In  the  end  both  names  were  used, —  Port  Norfolk  for  the  point  and  Neponset  for  the 
village. 

"  Ludlow's  Neck  e.xtended  from  the  Ro.xbury  line  to  Codman  Hill,  and  must  have 
been  named  for  the  crusty  and  tempery  Roger  Ludlow,  who  offended  the  freemen  of  Bos- 
ton, moved  out  to  Dorchester,  and  built  a  house  at  Old  Hill.     Cook's  Hill  was  long  ago 

cut  down.  I  remember  the  immense  amount  of  money 
Zebedee  Cook  spent  in  trying  to  sink  an  artesian  well  to 
water  his  gardens. 

"  Everybody  knows  of  Codman,  Jones,  and  Meeting- 
house Hills,  for  they  are  of  the  new  generation  as  well  as 
the  old  ;  but  did  you  ever  hear  of  Purgatory  Swamp,  between 
Neponset  River  and  the  Dedham  line,  of  Mother  Brook,  the 
old  way  between  Dorchester  and  Dedham,  and  the  way  of 
the  first  canal  built  in  this  country .'  Do  you  know  about 
Pow-wow  Point,  between  Little  Neck  and  Great  Neck  (Wash- 
ington Village  and  South  Boston),  Common,  Bear,  and  Dead 
Swamps,  where  the  colonists  used  to  cut  timber,  and  Indian 
Hill  over  Milton  way.' 
"  Well,  I  might  go  on  forever ;  for  every  foot  of  land  in  this  old  town  is  dear  to  me  and 
full  of  interest  to  any  one  who  will  read  the  records.  I  think  of  the  friends  and  neighbors 
of  my  youth  when  I  hear  of  Field's  Corner,  Glover's  Corner,  Upham's  Corner.  Then 
there  was  the  Upper  Road  (Washington  Street)  and  the  Lower  Road  (Adams  Street), 
the  Four  Corners  (where  Harvard,  Bowdoin,  and  Washington  Streets  meet).  In  my 
younger  days  it  was  not  Mt.  Bowdoin,  but  Bowdoin  Hill,  where  the  rich  Governor  Bow- 
doin lived  in  such  elegance. 

"  Of  course  there  were  many  names  given  by  the  neighbors  that  were  very  signifi- 
cant. The  eastern  slope  of  Meeting-house  Hill  must  have  been  very  wicked  to  earn 
the  name  of  Sodom.  Centre  Street  was  called  '  Old  Maid  Lane,'  because  of  the  many 
unplucked  buds  who  had  homes  there.  Rum  Plain  was  somewhere  near  Cedar  Grove. 
Why  it  was  called  so  I  have  forgotten,  but  you  and  I  can  easily  imagine.  But  why 
Cracker  Hollow  was  so  called  I  cannot  even  guess.  Tinean,  not  Tenean  as  it  is  called 
now,  was  named  from  an  East  Indian  island,  when  we  had  ships  in  that  trade. 

"Are  you  tired  ?  I  should  think  you  would  be ;  but  I  never  weary  of  talking  about 
the  old  times,  and  will  run  on  as  long  as  any  one  will  listen.  The  old  days  and  the  old 
ways !  Dorchester  kept  the  good  old  customs  longer  than  any  of  its  neighboring  towns. 
It  was  the  last  to  give  up  candles,  open  fires,  foot-stoves,  warming-pans,  and  going  to  bed 
at  nine  o'clock.  I  know  of  one  young  woman  who  was  born  here,  and  never  went 
to  Boston  until  she  was  married.     What  do  you  think  of  that .' 

"  Must  you  go,  indeed  .'  Well,  come  again ;  and,  if  I  can  think  of  more  about  the 
old  times,  I  will  give  you  another  chapter." 

And  so  I  went  home  through  the  gathering  dusk,  meeting  shadowy  forms  of  the 
good  men  and  good  wives  of  old  Dorchester  all  along  the  way,  and  almost  wishing   the 

slow,  simple,  "good  old  times"  back  again. 

Mary  C.  Eddy. 


THE  FIRST  PARISH,  DORCHESTER. 


ELIGION,  in  Old  England,  was  regulated  by  government.  In  New  England, 
religion  regulated  government.  The  English  Church,  like  the  English  gov- 
ernment, was  (and  is)  an  aristocracy.  Democracy  was  a  ruling  principle  of 
Puritanism.  Thus  the  keynote  of  our  government  was  struck  when  the 
Pilgrims  and  Puritans  established  in  the  New  England  wilderness  their  churches,  which 
were  literally  "of  the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people." 

But  that  little  band  of  a  hundred  and  forty  souls  who  gathered  at  Plymouth,  England, 
for  a  day  of  solemn  fasting  and  prayer,  before  putting  out  on  the  deep,  had  no  conception 
of  the  future  republic.  Freedom  to  worship  God  was  the  anchorage  they  sailed  toward. 
Tliis  first  meeting  of  our  Church  has  been  described  by  one  of  the  passengers :  "  That 
worthy  man  of  God,  Mr.  John  White  of  Dorchester,  in  Dorset,  was  present  and  preached 
unto  us  the  word  of  God,  in  the  fore  part  of  the  day,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  the  day,  as 
the  people  did  solemnly  make  choice  of  and  call  those  godly  ministers  to  be  their  officers, 
so  also  the  Rev.  Mr.  Warham  and  Mr.  Maverick  did  accept  thereof  and  expressed  the 
same."  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  reordination  was  not  considered  necessary,  though  both 
men,  now  thorough  non-conformists,  had  been  ordained  by  bishops  of  the  English  Church. 
This  fact  illustrates  the  breadth  of  view  which  from  the  outset  has  characterized  this 
church, —  the  readiness  to  disregard  the  letter  and  to  emphasize  the  spirit  of  religion. 
It  was  ready  to  believe  with  Robinson,  the  noble 
Leyden  Puritan,  "  that  the  Lord  had  yet  more 
truth  to  break  forth  from  his  holy  word";  and 
the  church  covenant  of  1636  contained  the  clause, 
"  so  far  as  we  do  already  know  or  shall  further 
understand,  out  of  God's  holy  word," —  the  terms 
under  which  members  pledged  their  faith. 

So  did  these  settlers  of  Dorchester  install 
their  first  ministers,  and  enter  their  first  meet- 
ing-house,—  the  stanch  and  strong  ship,  "  Mary 
and  John,"  which  bore  them  "by  the  good  hand 
of  the  Lord  through  the  deeps  comfortably." 
Roger  Clap,  from  whose  diary  we  have  a  brief 
account  of  the  voyage,  tells  us  that  their  min- 
isters "  preached  or  expounded "  the  word  of 
God  every  day  for  ten  weeks  together. 

The  proposed  destination  of  the  "Mary  and 
John  "  was  the  Charles  River,  which  had  been 
exploited  some  years  before.  Such,  however, 
was  the  lack  of  exact  knowledge  of  the  Amer- 
ican coast  that,  when  the  vessel  came  to  anchor, 
Sunday,    May    30,    1630,   after   a  seventy   days' 


-4P= 


1 8  The  Dorchester  Book 

passage,  it  was  off  Nantasket  instead  of  in  the  Charles.  Exploration  of  the  immediate 
coast  satisfied  the  passengers  that  a  neighboring  site,  called  Mattapan  by  the  Indian 
inhiabitants,  was  well  suited  to  their  needs ;  and  they  forthwith  led  out  to  pasturage 
their  famished  cattle,  and  began  to  make  their  settlement.  On  Sunday,  June  6  (the 
17th  in  our  present  calendar),  they  rested  from  their  labors.  It  is  this  date  which  marks 
the  foundation  of  the  town  and  the  First  Church  of  Dorchester.  The  next  week  brought 
the  "  Arbella,"  with  Governor  Winthrop  and  the  charter  under  which  the  colony  was  to 
be  founded.     During  the  month  other  vessels  of  the  Winthrop  fleet  continued  to  arrive. 

These  early  settlers  of  Dorchester  —  "the  many  godly  families,"  as  Captain  Roger 
Clap  speaks  of  them,  "men  leaving  gallant  situations,"  "very  precious  men  and 
women,"  by  no  means  forgetful  of  their  purpose  of  founding  a  State  where  God  should 
be  the  supreme  sovereign,  and  his  word,  the  Bible,  the  chief  statute  book  —  still  turned 
their  hands  first  to  the  humbler  tasks  of  hewing  wood  and  carrying  water.  Log  cabins 
sprang  up,  roads  were  made.  It  was  not  until  the  autumn  of  163 1  that  the  first  meeting- 
house was  built.  That  its  erection  was  delayed  for  a  year  is  evidence  of  the  extreme 
privations  and  hardships  of  those  twelve  months.  The  rude  structure  of  logs  and 
thatch  was  also  a  depot  for  military  stores,  and,  so  long  as  attack  from  the  Indians  threat- 
ened, was  palisadoed  and  nightly  guarded.  Winthrop  mentions  that  Mr.  Maverick  once 
accidentally  set  fire  to  a  small  barrel  of  powder,  and  that,  consequently,  the  thatch  of  the 
new  meeting-house  was  blackened  a  little.  Town  hall  and  place  of  worship  in  one,  this 
meeting-house  did  service  for  the  first  fifteen  years  of  the  colony.  Of  the  first  ministers 
little  is  known.  Mr.  Maverick  is  styled  by  Johnson,  a  contemporary  historian,  "the  godly 
Mr.  Maverick  "  ;  and  Winthrop  says  of  him,  "  He  was  a  man  of  very  humble  spirit,  faithful 
in  furthering  the  work  of  the  Lord  here,  both  in  church  and  civil  State."  A  more  aggres- 
sive and  brilliant  man  was  Mr.  Warham.  His  views  about  church  constitutions  were 
independent.  Preaching  with  notes  is  said  to  have  been  introduced  into  New  England 
by  him.  He  went  with  those  members  of  the  church  who  in  1635  removed  to  Windsor, 
Conn,  (for  "more  room,"  it  was  said),  and  there  lived  as  "a  gracious  servant  of  Christ" 
for  thirty-four  years. 

After  the  death  of  Mr.  Maverick,  Richard  Mather  was  called  in  1636  to  a  reorganized 
church,  at  whose  head  he  remained  for  thirty-three  years.  In  accordance  with  the  custom 
of  having  two  ministers,  a  pastor  and  a  teacher,  the  Rev.  Jonathan  Burr  became  Mr. 
Mather's  colleague.  William  Stoughton,  too,  though  a  layman,  frequently  assisted  by 
preaching, —  another  instance  of  the  liberality  of  opinion  of  the  early  church.  Mr.  Mather, 
who  took  so  important  a  part  in  the  pioneer  years  of  the  church,  was  of  English  birth  and 
education.  Though  his  parents  were  poor  people,  he  had  an  exceptional  education. 
Graduated  at  Oxford,  he  preached  for  sixteen  years  in  the  English  Church,  from  which  he 
was  suspended  for  non-conformity.  He  fled  from  England  in  disguise,  and  finally  reached 
New  England,  where  he  soon  became  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  civil  and  ecclesiastical 
affairs  of  Dorchester.  He  wrote  many  essays  bearing  on  the  questions  of  the  times,  and 
assisted  in  the  compilation  of  the  Bay  Psalm  Book.  It  is  said  of  him  that  he  was  a  man 
of  great  bodily  strength,  and  a  "very  powerful,  awakening,  and  zealous  preacher."  His 
death,  in  1669,  is  thus  simply  recorded  by  the  church  :  "The  Rev.  Richard  Mather,  teacher 
of  the  church  of  Dorchester,  rested  from  his  labours."  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  his 
son  and  grandson,  were  both  distinguished  ministers  in  their  day. 

A   step   toward   relaxation    of    the   extreme   rigidity   of  church   form  was   agitated 


;y  v.^MbK^ri'i .  BUILT  H^  io9/ 


r^:^ 


e/iPiST 


riAOpi. 


('     l>  k 


The  First  Parish,  Dorchester  19 

toward  the  close  of  Mr.  Mather's  ministry.  It  concerned  the  public  confession  of  faith 
which  was  exacted  of  new  members.  In  its  place  the  new  member  was  required  merely 
to  stand  forth  and  acknowledge  the  confession  which  had  been  previously  written  down 
in  private. 

Church  authority  in  these  days  was  vigilant,  severe,  and  far-reaching.  Many  details 
of  living  and  conduct,  now  controlled  by  law  or  conscience,  came  within  the  church's 
jurisdiction.  For  example,  J.  L.  had  a  misunderstanding  with  his  wife,  and  was  accused 
of  maltreating  her,  which  caused  no  little  trouble  to  the  church.  After  several  meetings 
the  matter  was  settled  by  his  promising  "to  carry  it  more  loving  to  her  for  time  to 
come." 

J.  B.  was  less  amenable.  He  had  been  lying,  and  was  also  convicted  of  horse  steal- 
ing. On  his  refusing  to  come  before  the  church,  he  was  disowned,  and  excommuni- 
cated, "though  not  delivered  up  to  Satan, .  .  .  and  familiar  society  with  him  forbidden  unto 
his  relations,  natural  and  civil,  that  he  may  be  ashamed." 

J.  M.  came  forth  voluntarily,  and  acknowledged  to  his  sin  in  being  too  much  over- 
come with  drinking  on  the  day  of  Major  Clark's  funeral. 

The  elders  and  "  ancient "  brethren  were  authorized  to  summon  members  in  private ; 
and,  in  case  of  non-compliance,  public  admonition  was  administered.  One  man  of  some 
distinction  was  called  upon  to  give  satisfaction  for  his  "  contemptuous  carriage."  "  Others 
there  were  that  should  have  been  called  forth,  .  .  .  but  the  time  and  season  of  cold  [Janu- 
ary, in  a  cold  meeting-house]  would  not  permit." 

With  the  growth  of  the  settlement  the  first  primitive  meeting-house,  with  its 
thatched  roof  and  outside  stairway,  did  not  meet  the  needs  of  the  people.  It  was  there- 
fore agreed,  "  at  the  general  meeting  of  the  town,  for  peace  and  love's  sake  that  there  shall 
be  a  new  meeting-house,  built  on  Mr.  Howard's  land,  in  the  most  convenient  place  be- 
twi.xt  Mr.  Stoughton's  garden  and  his  barn."  ^£^250  was  raised;  and  the  following  year, 
1646,  j{^40  was  added  for  finishing,  and  "  making  the  walls  decent  within  and  with- 
out." 

After  Mr.  Mather's  death,  Mr.  Stoughton  refused  six  urgent  calls  to  become  pastor. 
This  distinguished  man  served  his  community  and  his  country,  however,  in  other  offices 
than  that  in  which  his  fellow-townsmen  so  earnestly  desired  to  see  him.  He  represented 
the  colony  in  England,  was  chief  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court,  lieutenant  governor,  and 
commander-in-chief.  The  independence  of  his  character  is  well  set  forth  in  his  refusing 
to  recant  when  his  colleague.  Judge  Sewall,  made  public  apology  in  the  Old  South 
Church  for  the  share  he  took  in  persecuting  the  witches.  Mr.  Stoughton  declared  that 
he  had  no  confession  to  make,  for,  though  now  of  a  different  mind  in  regard  to  witchcraft, 
he  had,  at  the  time  of  the  trial,  acted  in  all  sincerity. 

As  Mr.  Stoughton  continued  in  his  refusals,  saying  that  "he  had  some  objections 
within  himself  against  the  notion "  of  becoming  minister,  the  Rev.  Josiah  Flint  was 
finally  installed  as  Mr.  Mather's  successor.  In  1670  the  church  was  moved  to  its  present 
site  on  Meeting-house  Hill,  then  known  as  Rocky  Hill,  where  the  school-house  already 
stood.  The  duties  of  the  sexton,  who  at  this  time  was  one  Nathan  Bradley,  were  to  "  ring 
the  bell,  cleanse  the  meeting-house,  and  to  carry  the  water  for  baptism."  While  the  bell 
stood  on  the  hill,  Mr.  Bradley  was  to  have  "after  £4  a  year;  and  after  the  bell  is  brought 
to  the  meeting-house  .^3  10^."  Mr.  Flint's  was  the  shortest  ministry  in  the  annals  of  the 
church.     The  first  graduate  of  Harvard  to  fill  this  pulpit,  his  life  and  labors  therein,  ended 


20  The  Dorchester  Book 

by  his  death,  are  honored  in  his  epitaph  in  the  old  burying-ground, —  "the  good  scholar 
and  earnest  preacher  and  devoted  pastor." 

The  pastorate  of  John  Danforth,  which  followed,  lasted  for  forty-eight  years,  and  is  the 
longest  the  church  has  known.  Mr.  Danforth,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  became  pastor 
in  Dorchester,  five  years  after  his  graduation  from  Harvard.  "  A  young  man  of  talent 
and  grace  "  he  is  styled  ;  and  his  ministry,  it  is  elsewhere  testified,  "  was  in  great  fidelity, 
and  in  the  exercise  of  superior  talents  and  graces."  A  quaint  vote  was  passed  toward 
the  end  of  Mr.  Danforth's  ministry,  which  indicates  that  the  good  man  had  trials  in 
common  with  "Sir  Oracle,"  though,  being  "exceedingly  charitable  and  of  a  very  peaceful 
temper,"  he  probably  sought  more  graciously  to  remedy  the  evil :  "  Whereas  of  late, 
dogs  have  frequently  come  into  our  meeting-house  on  Sabbath  days,  and  by  their  barking, 
quarrelling,  etc.,  have  made  disturbance  in  the  time  of  divine  worship,"  etc.  The  vote 
ended  by  fixing  a  penalty  upon  the  dogs'  owners. 

The  year  1740  was  a  memorable  one  on  account  of  the  coming  of  George  Whitefield, 
whose  preaching  made  more  of  a  sensation  in  Massachusetts  than  that  of  any  minister 
since  its  settlement.  Thousands  flocked  to  hear  him.  Dorchester,  perhaps,  was  less 
influenced  by  his  preaching  than  some  of  the  other  outlying  towns, —  even  though,  as 
tradition  has  it,  when  preaching  on  the  Common,  his  voice  could  be  heard  on  Jones's  Hill. 
The  fourth  meeting-house  was  built  in  1743.  Its  increase  in  size  over  former  build- 
ings, as  well  as  the  increase  of  the  community's  wealth,  is  indicated  by  the  3,500  odd 
pounds  devoted  to  its  erection. 

In  1752,  in  the  ministry  of  the  Rev.  John  Bowman,  the  Scriptures  were  first  read 
as  part  of  public  worship. 

Moses  Everett  preached  "with  great  acceptance"  until  1793,  "when,"  says  a  notice 
of  him, "  the  declining  state  of  his  health  compelled  him  to  relinquish  an  office  he  was  too 
feeble  to  fulfil  and  too  conscientious  to  neglect." 

Of  Thaddeus  Mason  Harris,  whose  ministry  lasted  forty-three  years,  his  colleague 
and  successor,  Mr.  Hall,  says  :  "  But  there  are  others  of  you,  for  whose  sakes  I  am  glad 
to  speak  of  him,  though  it  must  be  so  inadequately, —  of  his  purity  and  refinement  of 
mind ;  his  scholarly  acquirements,  gained  by  a  life  of  reading  and  research ;  his  humble 
conscientiousness,  his  gentle  and  guileless  and  childlike  spirit ;  his  quick  and  flowing 
sympathies." 

For  almost  two  centuries  the  First  Church  was  the  only  one  in  Dorchester.  In 
1808,  because  the  growing  parish  could  no  longer  be  contained  in  one  church,  the  Second 
Church  was  organized.  Originally  one  in  doctrine  with  the  present  church,  it  later  took 
its  stand  with  the  more  orthodox  churches ;  yet  the  spirit  of  good  will  has  always  con- 
tinued, after  the  first  difference,  between  these  kindred  parishes. 

The  long  ministry  of  Mr.  Hall,  1835-75,  is  another  signal  record  of  faithful  and 
inspired  service.  It  is  a  source  of  regret  to  me  that  this  tribute  to  his  work  and 
character  is  not  written  by  one  who  knew  him.  But  perhaps  it  is  no  less  a  token  of  the 
permanence  of  his  spirit  and  influence  that  they  make  special  appeal  to  one  who  has 
known  him  only  as  a  figure  of  the  past.  His  prompt  and  unswerving  advocacy  of 
abolition  marks  the  soundness  of  his  judgment  and  the  fearlessness  of  his  soul.  His 
services  in  those  days  which  tried  men's  souls,  the  reconstruction  period,  attest  his  clear 
insight  and  enduring  courage.  Such  action,  through  which  shone  unfailingly  the  radiance 
of  a  lovable  personality  and  an  abounding  sympathy,  proves  him  no  unworthy  follower  of 


The  First  Parish,  Dorchester  »x 

the   Puritan   heroes.      To  this  devoted    pastor  we  owe   much  of    our  church's    present 
vitality  and  prosperity. 

The  Rev.  Samuel  J.  Barrows  was  minister  from  1876  to  1880,  the  Rev.  Christopher 
R.  Eliot  then  until  1893,  when  the  Rev.  Eugene  R.  Shippen  was  installed,  the  fourteenth 
minister  of  the  First  Parish.  Of  the  destruction  by  fire  of  the  si.xth  meeting-house,  built 
in  1816,  and  the  erection  of  the  present  one,  it  is  not  necessary  to  speak. 

This  beautiful  building,  like  the  apotheosis  of  former  churches,  standing  on  the  same 
spot  where  for  more  than  two  centuries  and  a  quarter  a  house  of  God  has  stood,  sym- 
bolizes the  same  ideals  that  our  forefathers  braved  the  wilderness  to  maintain.  And  in  it 
may  their  descendants  long  worship  God  in  the  beauty  of  holiness  ! 

Virginia  Holbrook. 


A  WONDERFUL  DELIVERANCE. 

(The  true  account  of  a  very  remarkable  event  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Hope  Atherton,  minister  of  Hatfield, 
sometime  schoolmaster  in  Dorchester,  as  it  happened  to  him  when  he  was  chaplain  of  Turner's  men  at  the 
"  Falls  Fight,"  in  King  PhiUp's  War.) 


Philip  is  dead,  that  bloody  man. 

Who  us  hath  sore  distrest. 
From  all  such  salvage  foes  as  he 

May  our  good  land  have  rest. 

Oh,  what  a  woeful,  woeful  year 
This  twelve  month  past  hath  been ! 

How  heavily  the  Lord  hath  laid 
His  hand  upon  our  sin  ! 

Our  towns  laid  waste  ;  our  bravest  slain ; 

Our  women  captive  led ; 
But  now  God's  hand  is  lifting  up 

His  stricken  people's  head. 

From  many  lips  thanksgivings  rise 

For  marvels  He  has  done. 
Most  cause  of  all  to  praise  His  name 

Have  I,  Hope  Atherton. 


From  Hatfield  town  rode  Turner's  men. 

One  hundred  and  a  score. 
We  slacked  not  rein  until  we  heard 

The  plunging  river  roar. 

"  Dismount !  dismount !  "  the  word  went  round. 

In  silence  did  we  creep 
To  rearward  of  King  Philip's  men. 

And  caught  them  in  their  sleep. 

Encamped  along  the  river  bank, 

Above  the  falls  they  lay. 
We  roused  them  with  the  blast  of  doom, 

Just  at  the  break  of  day. 

Dazed  by  our  onset,  they  awoke ; 

In  vain  they  sought  to  fly. 
The  God  of  Israel  gave  us  strength 

To  smite  them  hip  and  thigh. 


They  yelled  with  rage  and  mortal  fear, 

They  leaped  into  the  flood. 
Like  beasts  of  sacrifice  they  fell ; 

The  ground  steamed  up  with  blood. 

Ah,  me  !  it  was  a  fearful  sight 

To  see,  when  all  was  done. 
Three  hundred  Indians  we  had  slain; 

Our  loss  was  only  one. 

Three  hundred  souls  cut  off  in  sin. 

Condemned  to  endless  woes  ! 
May  God  forgive  me  that  I  grieve 

At  slaughter  of  His  foes  ! 

How  pleasant  seemed  the  springtime  wood, 

ClothM  in  tender  green, 
When  we  had  turned  our  backs  upon 

That  cruel,  bloody  scene. 

In  soberness  and  haste  we  went. 

With  silent,  careful  tread ; 
For  sounds  were  on  the  morning  wind 

That  filled  our  hearts  with  dread. 

Scarce  half  our  men  had  got  to  horse. 
When  bullets  showered  like  rain, 

As  a  fresh  horde  of  salvages 
Came  pressing  on  amain. 

From  rear  and  flank  they  shot  us  down 

I  saw  brave  Turner  fall. 
The  Lord  holp  Captain  Holyoke  then, 

Or  slain  we  had  been  all. 

More  of  the  fight  I  cannot  tell  ; 

'Tis  but  a  fearful  dream, 
Of  demon  forms  and  frantic  yells, 

And  hell-fire's  lurid  gleam. 


A  Wonderful  Deliverance 


23 


Day  passed,  night  came,  I  know  not  how ; 

I  found  myself  alone. 
My  horse  had  gone,  with  him  my  food, 

My  pillow  was  a  stone. 

Night  passed,  day  came,  I  know  not  how ; 

I  wandered  on  and  on. 
A  mist  of  blood  before  my  eyes 

Rose  ever  and  anon. 

Gone  was  all  sense  of  time  and  place, 

My  mind  was  far  away 
Where  peaceful,  smiling  Dorchester 

O'erlooks  her  goodly  bay. 

Where  once  I  ruled  the  village  school 

With  precept  and  with  rod, 
To  make  the  boys  of  Dorchester 

Love  learning  and  fear  God, 

Where  Sabbath  days  I  sat  and  heard 

The  godly  Mather  preach, — 
Apples  of  gold  in  silver  set 

Was  his  well-ordered  speech, — 

Where  oft  I  heard  an  inward  voice 

Me  solemnly  exhort : 
"  Make  haste,  proclaim  my  saving  word. 

Your  time  is  all  too  short." 

1  cannot  tell  how  many  days 

Dragged  out  their  weary  length ; 

I  know  at  last  my  dream  was  spent, 
And  spent  was  all  my  strength. 

At  set  of  sun  I  laid  me  down 

Reneatli  a  towering  pine  j 
I  did  not  think  to  see  again 

The  day  star  rise  and  shine. 


But  soon  I  heard  the  cautious  tread 

Of  many  feet,  and  then 
There  swiftly  passed,  through  gathering  dusk, 

A  file  of  Indian  men. 

Close  by  they  made  their  hasty  camp ; 

I  saw  them  cook  their  fish. 
My  eager  nostrils  never  smelt 

So  rare  a  dainty  dish. 

Hope  sprang  again  ;  my  strength  came  back. 

Better  it  seemed  to  die 
By  torture  of  those  p.iinted  fiends 

Than  starve  with  food  so  nigh. 

So  crying  out,  "  I  come  in  peace !  " 

Toward  them  I  made  my  way. 
They  stayed  not  for  my  near  approach. 

But  fled  in  sore  dismay. 

"  The  white  man's  God  !  the  white  man's  God  ! " 

They  shrieked  as  off  they  ran, 
Seeming  to  take  my  wasted  frame 

For  more  than  mortal  man. 

But  with  the  cause  of  their  strange  fright 

Not  long  I  ve.xed  my  mind. 
I  sat  me  down,  and  fed  right  well 

On  what  they  left  behind. 

That  night  I  slept,  rose  up  refreshed, 

And  found  the  river  shore  ; 
Then  followed  down  until  I  saw 

Dear  Hatfield  town  once  more. 

From  fowler's  snare  God  hath  my  life 

With  great  deliverance  won, 
And  never  cease  to  praise  His  name 

Will  1,  Hope  Atherton. 


Benjamin  A.  Goodridge. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  EDUCATION  IN  DORCHESTER. 

^T  is  certainly  very  appropriate  to  have  recorded  in  the  "  Dorchester  Book  "  the 
generally  accepted  fact  that  in  Dorchester  was  founded  the  first  free  public 
school  in  the  world,  supported  by  direct  taxation  or  assessments  on  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  town;  also,  that  here  the  first  school  committee  was  created, 
that  is,  chosen  by  the  voters  and  selected  from  among  the  people  at  large,  to  look  after 
the  interests  of  the  school,  in  the  same  manner  that  school  boards  have  ever  since  been 
established  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  land.  How  can  we  better  trace  the 
progress  of  education  in  Dorchester  than  by  a  comparison  of  her  school  buildings  and 
the  curriculum  of  the  schools  of  the  seventeenth  century  with  the  present  day  ?  The  first 
school-house,  built  in  1638-39,  near  the  corner  of  Pleasant  and  Cottage  Streets,  was  a  frail 
structure,  and  remained  many  years  in  an  unfinished  state.  In  the  year  1657  the  town 
voted  five  shillings  in  money,  and  timber  from  the  lot,  that  a  floor  be  laid  overhead,  to  be 
used  as  a  study  for  the  schoolmaster.  It  was  nearly  a  hundred  years  after  the  first 
school-house  was  built  before  the  town  voted  to  appropriate  ;^i2  toward  a  school  in  the 
south  part  of  the  town,  and  not  until  1776  was  the  third  school  started. 

I  find  in  the  diary  of  James  Humphreys,  who  was  born  in  1753,  the  following  descrip- 
tions of  the  first  three  school-houses  on  Meeting-house  Hill :  "  The  first  School  House 
stood  near  the  Meeting  House,  it  was  of  an  oblong  square,  the  end  set  against  a  rock  that 
stands  perpendicular,  which  said  rock  served  as  a  back  for  to  build  the  fire  against.  This 
rock  is  north  of  the  Meeting  House  adjoining  the  road,  the  east  side  between  Ralph 
Shepard's  and  William  Swan's.  When  a  schoolboy  I  have  frequently  seen  by  marks  on 
the  surface  where  the  foundations  of  the  two  houses  were." 

This  spot  can  easily  be  recognized  to-day,  as  part  of  the  rock  still  remains  between 
the  estates  of  Robert  Swan  and  Otis  Shepard  on  Winter  Street,  opposite  the  estate  of  the 
late  Hiram  Shepard.  I  distinctly  remember  the  perpendicular  rock  as  it  stood,  extending 
so  far  out  into  Winter  Street  that  it  was  difficult  for  teams  to  pass  each  other  at  that 
point. 

"The  Second  School  House  was  built  in  1694,  by  Joseph  Trescott,  it  was  twenty 
feet  long,  and  nineteen  feet  wide,  and  cost  .^23.  It  stood  opposite  Mr.  Joseph  Lead's 
house,  east  of  the  road.  It  was  a  low  building  pitched  roof  four  square,  one  seat  to  sit  on 
made  fast  to  three  sides  of  the  house.  The  place  made  to  write  and  lay  the  books  on, 
was  on  three  sides  likewise,  at  a  proper  distance,  made  so  wide  that  another  row  of  seats, 
that  was  made  inside  for  the  boys  to  sit  on,  sufficient  to  write  or  study,  facing  each  other. 
A  shelf  was  likewise  made  on  three  sides  of  the  house  to  lay  the  books  and  papers  on,  so 
that  the  boys  by  stepping  on  the  seat  made  to  sit  on,  and  where  they  write  might  have 
access  to  their  books  on  the  shelves.  A  large  table  and  an  arm  chair  was  in  the  center. 
The  chimney  was  on  the  west  side  toward  the  road.  The  wood  laid  on  the  fire  four  feet 
in  length,  and  oftentimes  in  the  winter  smoke  and  cold  enough.  The  door  facing  the 
south,  the  jams  so  large  that  it  embraced  the  whole,  save  room  for  the  entry  door.  The 
wood  house  leantoo  fashion  toward  the  road.     The  school  was  divided  into  three  classes, 


V 


/ 


w 


.  .ARYliE/^EriWAY  SCHO^.. 


The  Prog:rc5i  of  Education  in  Dorchester  25 

the  lowest  called  the  Psalter  class,  the  second  the  Testament,  the  third  the  Bible  class. 
The  task  of  the  latter  to  read  about  two  chapters  commencing  and  ending  of  school,  spell 
the  words,  and  write  a  copy  or  cypher.  Girls  not  admitted  save  once  in  the  fall  of  the 
year,  the  general  catechising,  by  Rev.  Mr.  Bowman,  then  each  one  was  to  answer  two 
questions  in  the  Assembly  Catechism,  and  excellent  advise  given  them,  and  conclude  with 
prayer.  I  went  to  this  school  about  seven  years,  from  1759  to  1767,  and  saw  no  other 
English  books  except  the  Assembly  Catechism,  till  the  two  last  years  we  had  Dillworth's 
Spelling  Book  and  Hadder's  Arithmetic.  My  teachers  were  Noah  Clap,  James  Baker, 
David  Leeds,  and  William  Bowman."  This  school-house  stood  near  the  William  D. 
Swan  house  on  Hancock  Street,  opposite  the  estate  of  the  late  William  Hendry. 

"  The  third  School  House  stood  between  this  and  the  Parsonage  House,  which  was 
afterwards  moved  over  the  hill,  and  is  now  a  dwelling  occupied  by  the  widow  of  Ichabod 
Wiswall." 

This  Ichabod  was  doubtless  a  descendant  of  the  man  of  that  name  who  was  the 
school-teacher  in  1657. 

What  remains  of  the  old  school-house  now  stands  on  the  south  side  of  Freeport 
Street,  a  few  rods  from  its  junction  with  Pleasant  Street.  It  has  a  brick  basement  and 
is  occupied  by  Sebastian  Cabot  Peters. 

The  progress  of  the  education  of  women  in  Dorchester  is  shown  in  the  fact  that  the 
deeds  of  real  estate  of  the  seventeenth  century  are  signed  by  men  of  note,  who,  for  those 
days,  were  highly  educated.  Yet  the  women,  in  many  instances,  signed  them  thus 
"  her  X  mark,"  showing  that  they  were  not  taught  even  to  read  or  write.  The  eigh- 
teenth century  had  more  than  half  elapsed  before  women  were  even  allowed  to  be  taught 
in  the  public  schools.  Today  the  list  of  graduates  from  our  public  schools  is  very  evenly 
divided  between  the  boys  and  the  girls.  Any  one  who  had  the  pleasure  of  listening  to  the 
original  papers  of  the  young  lady  graduates  of  the  Dorchester  High  School  last  year  must 
be  convinced  of  the  remarkable  opportunities  which  are  given  to-day  for  the  development 
of  originality,  refinement  in  rhetoric,  and  a  broad  and  liberal  education  of  the  girls  of 
Dorchester.  In  fact,  there  is  hardly  a  branch  of  education  in  which  the  girls  have  not 
equal  advantages  with  the  boys ;  and  the  list  of  Dorchester  women  who  have  graduated 
during  the  past  few  years  from  colleges,  scientific  and  professional  schools,  some  of  them 
having  obtained  a  high  position  in  their  profession,  shows  a  marvellous  progress  in  all 
branches  of  education.  We  have  but  to  look  at  the  long  list  of  noted  men  who  have 
graduated  from  our  public  schools,  who  have  held  some  of  the  highest  positions  of  trust 
and  responsibility,  some  having  stood  at  the  head  of  their  profes.sion,  to  note  the  rapid 
growth  of  the  opportunities  for  a  liberal  education,  and  to  show  that  Dorchester  has  not 
been  backward  in  improving  all  the  advantages  which  modern  methods  in  pedagogy  have 
given.  In  the  light  of  to-day  this  fact  seems  quite  remarkable,  that  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years  after  the  town  of  Dorchester  on  the  30th  of  May,  1639,  voted  to  lay 
a  tax  on  the  proprietors  of  Thompson's  Island  for  the  maintenance  of  a  public  school  in 
Dorchester,  no  other  textbook  was  used  but  the  Bible,  aiul  that  the  introduction  of  an 
arithmetic  was  witnessed  by  the  grandparent  of  the  writer.  A  single  leaf  of  coarse  paper, 
with  the  alphabet,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  and  Richard  Mather's  Catechism,  was  used  previous 
to  the  New  England  Primer  in  the  "dame  school." 

In  1645  the  town  voted,  "It  shall  be  the  dutye  of  the  Wardens  to  order  and  dispose 
of  all  things  that  concerne  the  schoole,  in  such  sort  as  in  their  wisedome  and  discretion 


26  The  Dorchester  Book 

they  shall  Judge  most  Conducible  for  the  Glory  of  God  and  the  trayning  up  of  the  Children 
of  the  Towne  in  Religion,  learning  and  Civilitie." 

To-day  we  have  free  text-books  for  every  conceivable  branch  of  study  and  highly 
educated  teachers  who  develop  our  children  intellectually,  morally,  and  physically. 

I  have  space  to  mention  but  few  of  the  noted  men  who  lived  and  attended  school  in 
Dorchester :  Edward  Everett,  who  was  born  in  the  school  district  that  bears  his  name  ; 
Governor  Stoughton,  who  left  ^^150  to  the  Dorchester  schools,  with  the  condition  that 
the  salary  of  the  schoolmaster  should  be  fixed  at  ;C40  a  year,  which  was  a  large  increase 
on  the  amount  then  paid ;  Christopher  Gibson,  the  income  of  whose  gift  has  given  so 
many  reference  books  and  extras  that  would  not  otherwise  have  been  provided,  not  least 
of  all  the  base-ball  ground  which  so  many  of  our  boys  have  enjoyed  ;  Daniel  Webster,  who, 
if  he  did  not  attend  the  schools,  lived  for  a  time  on  or  near  the  spot  where  now  stands  the 
Henry  L.  Pierce  School;  Dr.  John  Homans  ;  the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher;  the  Rev.  Elijah 
Danforth ;  the  Hon.  James  Bowdoin,  son  of  Governor  Bowdoin,  who  gave  sixty  acres  of 
land  for  the  school  fund;  Elder  James  Blake;  Humphrey  Atherton ;  Roger  Williams ; 
Roger  Clap,  for  whom  the  Roger  Clap  School-house  was  named  and  on  whose  farm 
the  building  was  erected ;  the  Mather  family ;  Governors  Hancock,  Winthrop,  Morton, 
Oliver,  Bowdoin,  Eustis,  and  Gardner. 

Among  the  teachers  who  taught  in  the  Dorchester  schools  previous  to  1800  I 
find  forty-five  men  who  were  graduates  of  Harvard  College. 

It  is  a  remarkab''"  ^"'^  "-'■'-inishing  fact,  which  can  be  demonstrated  by  figures,  that 
thf>  ..jiiioer  of  college-bred  men  in  Massachusetts  is  50  per  cent,  less  than  it  was  in 
the  eighteenth   century. 

In  1 710  it  was  voted  that  each  of  the  children  should  be  provided  by  those  who 
sent  them  with  "  two  feet  of  wood  or  two  shilling  and  sixpence  money,  to  be  delivered 
to  the  School  Master  within  one  month  after  the  twenty-ninth  of  September,  annually, 
or  their  children  to  have  no  privilege  of  the  fire."  Not  till  1732  did  the  town  provide 
wood  for  school-houses.  Now  the  city  puts  one  hundred  tons  of  coal  into  a  single 
building;  and  the  poorest  child  has  an  equal  privilege  with  the  richest  of  enjoying  the 
heated  rooms. 

In  1771  the  town  voted  £,2  \2s.  toward  keeping  a  school  on  "the  lower  country 
road,"  and  to-day  the  $100,000  school-house  does  not  accommodate  all  the  children  in 
that  section.  In  1784  the  town  voted  "that  such  Girls  as  can  read  in  a  Psalter  be 
allowed  to  go  to  the  Grammar  School."  They  had  hitherto  gone  to  the  "dame  schools," 
where  they  received  very  simple  instruction  in  reading,  spelling,  and  sewing.  In  1787 
it  was  voted  by  the  selectmen  that  "  it  is  not  expedient  to  purchase  a  stove  for  the  gram- 
mar school."  In  1802  it  was  voted  to  appropriate  ^300  in  each  of  the  four  wards  for 
building  school-houses. 

In  1803  extravagance  began  to  show  itself.  The  town  voted  ^300  for  a  new  school- 
house,  the  district  raised  $180  more,  and  the  building  cost  ^472.86.  What  became  of 
the  $7.14  balance.'  Within  the  last  five  years  a  million  dollars  have  been  spent  in 
erecting  school-houses  in  Dorchester.  In  1827  the  movement  was  made  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  high  school,  but  the  town  voted  it  inexpedient.  It  was  not  until  1852 
that  $6,000  was  appropriated  by  the  town  for  a  high-school  building,  to  be  built  on  the 
"School  Pasture"  land.  It  stands  to-day  at  the  corner  of  Dorchester  Avenue  and 
Gibson  Street.     The  second  high  school  was  built  in  1868  at  a  cost  of  ^30,000.     The 


i 


"N 


The  Progress  of  Education  in  Dorchester  27 

third,  now  in  process  of  erection  on  Talbot  Avenue,  will  cost  ^250,000.  It  is  a  large 
structure,  with  an  annex  at  the  rear,  all  of  buff  brick,  with  limestone  trimmings,  and  in  the 
style  of  the  Renaissance,  designed  by  Hartwell,  Richardson  &  Driver. 

The  principal  front  lies  along  Talbot  Avenue,  and  the  effort  has  been  made  to  secure 
a  dignified  and  suitable  exterior  through  simple  and  unpretentious  means. 

At  opposite  ends  of  the  basement  of  the  main  building  are  coat-rooms  for  girls  and 
boys  respectively,  provided  with  a  locker  for  each  pupil.  A  spacious  and  thoroughly 
lighted  lunch-room  with  counters  for  the  steward  occupies  the  intermediate  space.  Con- 
venient to  the  coat-rooms  are  the  bicycle-rooms,  now  acknowledged  a  necessary  equipment 
of  the  modern  school.  Entered  from  the  rear  is  the  book  unpacking  room,  from  which  a 
lift  carries  the  books  to  the  stories  above  for  distribution. 

Liberal  toilet  accommodations  are  provided  at  this  level,  with  shower  baths  and  dress- 
ing-rooms for  the  use  of  the  Gymnasium  and  Drill  Hall.  We  should  add  that  each  story 
has  its  toilet-rooms  directly  over  those  in  the  basement,  making  the  plumbing  plant  very 
compact  and  simple  in  its  organization. 

By  way  of  the  janitor's  room  we  descend  to  the  boiler,  coal,  and  fan  rooms,  which  are 
outside  the  building  and  below  ground  at  the  east  end  of  the  lot.  This  scheme  makes  the 
handling  of  fuel  and  the  removal  of  ashes  an  easy  matter,  and  leaves  the  basement  clear 
and  free  for  the  uses  of  the  school. 

Fresh  warmed  air  is  conveyed  from  this  heating  plant  through  underground  ducts  to 
upright  shafts,  and  is  delivered  by  means  of  fan  pressure  in  ample  amounts  to  each  occu- 
pant of  the  building. 

From  the  basement  there  are  four  avenues  of  escape  to  the  streets,  and  three  wide 
stairways  to  the  floors  above. 

The  Gymnasium,  which  is  also  the  Drill  Hall,  covers  an  area  of  nearly  5,500  square 
feet,  and  in  height  is  equal  to  the  basement  and  first  story  of  the  main  building.  It  has  a 
room  for  the  director  and  a  Visitors'  Gallery,  seating  125  persons. 

Five  entrances  give  access  from  the  street  to  the  first  floor  corridors.  The  master's 
suite,  consisting  of  a  reception-room  and  an  office,  is  adjacent  to  the  western  doorway. 
Retiring-rooms  for  men  and  women  teachers  are  situated  near  the  ends  of  the  building. 
Two  class-rooms  accommodating  84  pupils  each,  with  a  recitation-room  adjoining,  and 
three  class-rooms  seating  42  pupils  each,  together  with  a  third  recitation-room,  make  up 
the  working  rooms  of  this  floor. 

The  principal  entrance  bisects  the  main  corridor  (which  runs  parallel  to  Talbot 
Avenue),  and  lies  opposite  to  the  grand  staircase  leading  to  the  Assembly  Hall  directly 
over  the  Gymnasium. 

In  this  hall  are  seats  for  835  people  on  the  floor  and  further  accommodation  for  165 
in  the  gallery. 

There  is  a  large  stage  with  anterooms  at  the  east  end.  A  handsome  open-timber 
roof  is  the  principal  decorative  feature  of  this  hall,  which  is  to  be  finished  light  with 
papier-mach^  ornaments. 

In  the  main  building  on  the  second  floor  is  a  large  book-storage  room  with  shelving, 
communicating  by  a  lift  with  the  unpacking-room  in  the  basement.  Each  class-room  is 
also  provided  with  its  own  book  closet. 

The  Library  (24'  x  34)  is  situated  at  the  south-west  corner,  and  with  the  three  recita- 
tion-rooms and  the  toilet-rooms  makes  up  the  quota  of  minor  apartments  on  this  floor. 


28 


The  Dorchester  Book 


There  are  besides  three  84-pupil  and  three  42-pupil  class-rooms. 

On  the  third  floor  are  the  laboratories,  apparatus-room,  physical  lecture  room,  and  two 
63-pupil  and  two  42-pupil  class-rooms.  There  are  also  toilet-rooms  and  coat-rooms  for 
third  floor  pupils. 

In  1776  the  school  expenses  of  Dorchester  were  $1,000;  in  1806  they  were  ;^i,9o6; 
in  1826,  $2,500;  in  1S56,  $23,000;  and  to-day  they  are  more  than  $230,000.  Thus  you 
see  the  rapid  strides  which  have  been  made  in  the  facilities  for  the  education  of  the 
masses. 

Believing  as  we  do  that  a  liberal  education  at  least  tends  toward  a  nobler  and 
more  rational  religion,  a  higher  standard  of  ethics,  a  broader  and  more  helpful  philan- 
thropy, and  the  encouragement  of  good  living,  and  that  it  prepares  the  rising  genera- 
tion for  a  better  performance  of  their  social  and  civil  duties,  we  can  but  rejoice  that 
Dorchester  continues,   as  in  the  past,   to  take  a  high  rank  in  the  process  of  education. 

As  I  look  back,  however,  over  the  early  history  of  Dorchester,  and  see  the  progress 
which  education  has  made,  and  realize  under  what  adverse  circumstances  this  advance 
has  been  accomplished;  and  when  I  consider  the  disappearance  of  the  simplicity  which 
marked  the  life  of  the  last  two  centuries,  and  see  the  rapid  increase  in  wealth  and  lux- 
ury, which  certainly  does  not  conduce  to  the  development  of  the  educational  side  of  our 
natures, —  I  fear  that  with  all  the  increased  facilities  for  intellectual  improvement  we 
can  hardly  look  for  any  greater  advance  in  the  future  than  the  past  has  shown. 

Richard  C.  Humphreys. 


<"5 


SOME  OF  OUR  CHURCHES. 


>)5^^=^[jHURCHES  have  so  multiplied  in  Dorchester  since  the  voyagers  on  the 
'mJ^J^Mp  "  Mary  and  John  "  brought  the  First  Church  with  them  that  space  is  lacking 
^^^^T^  in  the  pages  of  this  book  for  even  the  briefest  mention  of  them  all.  In  the 
^^'^■-^i  selection  of  a  few  for  presentation  here  no  definite  plan  has  been  followed. 
All  the  churches  could  not  be  described.  If  some  were  taken,  others  equally  worthy  and 
interesting  must  be  left  out.  This  is  all  that  can  be  said,  all  that  needs  to  be  said,  con- 
cerning the  scope  of  this  article. 

The  first  child  of  the  original  Dorchester  church  was  the  Second  Parish  Church. 
For  one  hundred  and  seventy-six  years  Dorchester  had  only  one  parish  and  one  meeting- 
house. But  in  iSo6  the  Second  Parish  meeting-house  was  built  at  the  corner  of  Wash- 
ington and  Centre  Streets,  in  1807  the  town  voted  to  form  a  second  parish,  and  in  1808 
the  church  was  formally  organized.  In  almost  a  hundred  years  of  great  usefulness  and 
prosperity  it  has  had  but  four  ministers.  The  first  minister,  the  Rev.  John  Codman,  D.D., 
had  served  almost  forty  years,  when  he  died  in  1847.  The  second  minister,  Dr.  James  H. 
Means,  had  a  pastorate  of  thirty  years.  The  Rev.  Edward  N.  Packard  followed  with  eight 
years  of  service.  The  present  incumbent  is  the  Rev.  Arthur  Little,  D.D.,  whose  able  and 
successful  ministry  has  continued  for  more  than  ten  years. 

In  describing  the  Baker  Memorial  Church,  one  comes  into  the  period  of  quite  modern 
history.  The  origin  of  this  flourishing  Methodist  Episcopal  church  is  very  interesting. 
In  1868  Miss  Sarah  Baker,  a  seamstress,  living  on  Savin  Hill,  left  $5,000  to  accumulate 
for  twenty  years  and  then  to  be  used  in  building  a  Methodist  church.  It  had  cost  Miss 
Baker  many  years  of  hard  toil  and  self-denial  to  lay  aside  this  modest  sum.  But  after  her 
death  it  increased  more  rapidly,  so  that  in  1888  it  amounted  to  over  twenty-two  thousand 
dollars.  When  this  bequest  became  available,  the  church 
on  Howard  Avenue  was  disbanded,  and  its  members  united 
with  the  people  of  Savin  Hill  and  Upham's  Corner ;  and 
a  little  later  the  beautiful  Baker  Memorial  Church  was 
built  at  Upham's  Corner.  The  Rev.  C.  H.  Talmadge  was 
the  minister  in  charge  when  the  church  was  built ;  and  he 
has  been  succeeded  by  the  Rev.  C.  S.  Rogers,  the  Rev. 
Frederick  N.  Upham,  and  the  present  minister,  the  Rev. 
K.  T.  Curnick. 

St.  Mary's  Episcopal  Church  had  its  origin  in  1847. 
A  hall  was  used  for  worship  until  1849,  when  a  church  was 
built  on  Bowdoin  Street.  This  was  burned  in  1887,  and 
the  present  building  on  Stoughton  Street  and  Cushing 
Avenue  was  built  in  1888.  In  1892  it  was  enlarged. 
The  present  rector  is  the  Rev.  Walter  E.  C.  Smith,  who 
has  been  in  charge  since  1892.  All  Saints'  Parish,  which 
now  has  a  beautiful  church  at  Ashmont,  was  originally  a 
mission  of  St.  Mary's. 


r 


-  -i^ 


30  The  Dorchester  Book 

The  Third  Religious  Society  was  originally  one  with  the  Second  Church.  In  1813 
a  separate  organization  of  the  liberals  of  that  congregation  was  thought  best.  The 
first  church  was  built  during  that  same  year.  It  was  on  Washington  Street.  The 
present  church  was  built  in  1840,  on  Richmond  Street.  The  Rev.  Frederick  B.  Mott 
has  been  settled  over  this  church  since  1892. 

St.  Peter's  Church  may  be  said  to  have  grown  out  of  the  location  on  which  it 
stands,  for  it  is  built  of  the  rock  that  was  quarried  out  of  Mt.  Ida  to  make  its  founda- 
tion. This  church  has  already  passed  its  silver  jubilee  ;  but  in  the  twenty-six  years  and 
more  of  its  prosperous  history  it  has  had  but  one  pastor,  the  Rev.  Peter  Ronan. 

A  church  which  has  not  quite  yet  reached  the  twenty-fifth  milestone  on  its  way  is 
the  Grove  Hall  Universalist  Parish.  It  was  organized  in  1S77,  and  used  to  worship  in  the 
building  on  the  corner  of  Schuyler  Street  and  Blue  Hill  Avenue;  but  in  1895  a  hand- 
some stone  church  was  built  on  the  corner  of  Wilder  and  Washington  Streets.  The  Rev. 
Charles  R.  Tenney  has  been  minister  of  this  church  for  more  than  ten  years. 

The  Dorchester  Temple  Baptist  Church  grew  out  of  a  Sunday-school  that  was 
organized  in  1884.  The  church  building,  which  stands  on  the  corner  of  Washington 
Street  and  Welles  Avenue,  was  dedicated  in  1892.  The  Rev.  Carey  W.  Chamberlin  has 
been  the  minister  since  1896. 


RiCttr 


THE  EVERETT  HOUSE. 

HAD  to  be  present  last  spring,  to  my  great  regret,  and  witness  the  destruc- 
tion of  a  fine  old  house.  Our  French  friends  would  say  that  I  "assisted  "  at 
its  destruction ;  but,  indeed,  I  did  not  assist.  The  tears  would  have  been 
running  down  my  cheeks  all  the  time  if  it  had  been  proper  for  men  to  weep. 

This  was  the  old  "Oliver  house,"  known  since  Oliver's  day  as  the  old  Everett  house, 
in  Dorchester.  It  was  the  house  in  which  my  mother  was  born,  and  in  which  she  lived 
until  she  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  Her  stories  of  childhood  were  of  the  games  of  hide- 
and-seek  in  its  attics,  and  one  of  her  pleasantest  memories  was  that  she  planted  the  honey- 
suckle which  overshadowed  the  little  court-yard  behind  the  house.  From  that  honey- 
suckle, when  it  was  more  than  sixty  years  old,  I  was  able  to  take  some  shoots,  which  are 
growing  now. 

Alas  and  alas  !  in  what  is  called  the  progress  of  improvement  this  house  had  to  be 
pulled  down.  When  I  went  over  to  see  the  men  do  it,  it  was  a  little  as  if  you  had  asked 
Phidias  to  assist  the  barbarians  who  were  knocking  to  pieces  the  model  for  one  of  his 
statues.  They  sold  me,  from  the  top  of  the  house,  two  wooden  "flames,"  which  for  a 
hundred  and  fifty  years,  more  or  less,  had  blazed  there  in  token  of  the  warmth  and  light 
within.  Edward,  who  drove  the  cab  which  carried  me  over  there,  went  out  into  the 
garden  and  dug  up  some  box,  which  was  planted  I  do  not  know  how  long  ago.  The  box 
has  died,  but  the  flames  still  burn  by  the  steps  to  my  own  house.  And  the  first  time  I 
can  find  a  man  in  the  street  who  sells  gilding  in  chocolate  papers,  at  fifteen  cents  a  paper, 
I  shall  buy  two  papers  of  it  from  him,  and  shall  make  my  flames  blaze  anew  in  every 
morning's  sun. 

Here  is  a  dear  old  Dorchester  house,  of  which  the  history,  if  its  walls  could  speak, 
would  be  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  times.  It  was  built,  so  they  tell  me,  in  1760,  by  one 
Robert  Oliver,  a  West  India  merchant.     Mr.  Trask  tells  this  story  about  him  :  — 

"  Colonel  Oliver  owned  a  plantation,  or  was  engaged  in  trade  with  some  of  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  West  India  Islands,  and  brought  from  thence  a  number  of  African  slaves. 
It  was  thought  that  the  health  of  these  slaves  would  be  in  a  better  condition,  when 
offered  for  sale,  if  some  employment  were  given  them.  As  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
carrying  burdens  on  their  heads,  wooden  trays  were  procured  for  them.  These  were  filled 
with  earth  from  an  eminence,  and  deposited  in  a  hollow  of  the  land  near  by.  Afterward, 
at  the  suggestions  of  some  of  his  Boston  friends  who  called  to  see  him,  the  colonel  substi- 
tuted small  wheelbarrows  for  trays.  To  the  amusement  of  the  passers-by  the  laborers 
were  seen  at  first  with  the  barrows  on  their  heads.  Not  understanding  the  rotary  power 
to  be  applied  to  those  vehicles,  they  ludicrously  made  themselves  the  carriages." 

It  has  always  been  said,  in  a  free-and-easy  way,  that  Oliver  was  a  Tory ;  but  I  do  not 
know  what  is  the  foundation  for  this  story.  His  name  does  not  appear  in  the  rather  care- 
ful list  of  Loyalists  drawn  up  by  that  admirable  historian,  Mr.  Lorenzo  Sabine.  A  good 
many  of  the  Olivers  were  Loyalists,  and  went  to  Halifax  for  their  Torydom,  among 
others  Andrew  Oliver.     Peter  Oliver  also  went  to  Halifax,  at  the  notification  of  the  town. 


3» 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Thomas  Oliver,  at  the  house  which  was  James  Russell  Lowell's  house  afterward,  stood 
on  his  doorsteps  and  defied  the  Middlesex  militia,  until  they  compelled  him  to  give  "  full 
compliance  with  their  demands." 

One  authority  says  it  was  he  who  lived  in  our  house  before  he  lived  in  Cambridge. 
Our  house  was  owned,  after  Oliver's  day,  by  John  Vassal,  another  Tory  refugee. 

I  have  fancied,  rightly  or  not,  that  the  old  Everett  house  looked  a  little  like  what  is 
now  the  Lowell  house.  At  all  events,  it  was  a  fine  comfortable  old  house,  built,  as  it 
were,  on  two  sides  of  a  square.  It  had  two  front  doors,  as  such  houses  do  ;  and  then  there 
was  a  little  half-garden,  h^\i-" />afw,"  behind.  One  of  the  front  doors  led  through  to  a 
hah  by  which  you  could  go  into  this  pa/to  again. 

There  was  afterward  a  Robert  Oliver  in  Baltimore,  and  another 
Robert  Oliver  in  Barre,  who  was  a  commander  of  American  troops. 
But  who  the  merchant  Robert  Oliver  was,  and  where  he  went  to,  and 
what  place  he  has  left  in  history,  I  cannot  tell.  I  cannot  help  hoping 
that  some  of  the  young  readers  of  this  magazine  will  make  it  a  duty 
for  the  next  fortnight  to  find  out  who  he  was ;  and  I  assure  such 
a  reader  that  he  will  add  to  the  prosperity  of  the  world  and  its  happi- 
ness if  he  will  inform  us,  through  any  proper  Dorchester  medium,  of 
the  results  of  his  inquiry. 

Among  other  things  which  Robert  Oliver  did  which  were  sensi- 
ble was  the  planting  of  some  English  walnut  trees  around  that  house. 
What  is  more,  he  so  planted  them  that  they  grew  and  increased  and 
bore  English  walnuts.  I  never  heard  of  any  other  English  walnut 
trees  in  Massachusetts.  There  may  be  many  such,  but  none  of  those 
who  pick  the  fruit  in  autumn  have  ever  sent  it  to  me :  I  wish  they 
would.  There  are  plenty  of  English  walnut  trees  in  California  now ; 
and  why  no  enterprising  person  plants  fifty  of  their  nuts  in  his  back- 
yard in  Dorchester,  in  the  hope  that  his  children  may  eat  the  fruit, 
is  a  question  which  I  cannot  answer. 

Nor,  as  I  have  said,  can  I  tell  when  Robert  Oliver  died  or  was 
driven  out  of  town,  or  if  he  were  driven  out  of  town,  or  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  he  served  in  the  rebel  army,  or  if  there  were  no  such 
person.  To  me  he  is  a  sort  of  Melchizedek,  without  beginning  of  years  or  end  of  days. 
Now  from  the  mythical  period  of  the  Everett  house  I  approach  matters  of  more  cer- 
tainty. I  had  a  grandfather  whose  name  was  Oliver  Everett.  Dear  old  Dr.  Pierce,  who 
was  also  a  Dorchester  man,  and  who  was  good  at  dates,  said  to  me,  the  first  time  I  ever 
spoke  with  him:  "Mr.  Hale,  your  grandfather  was  born  in  1752,  took  his  second  degree  at 
Harvard  College  in  1782,  was  ordained  in  1782,  resigned  in  1792,  and  died  in  1802.  You 
were  born  in  1822,  and  will  take  your  second  degree  in  1842."  All  these  coincidences  —  a 
little  forced,  as  the  reader  may  observe  —  connected  me  with  the  number  "two,"  but  also 
connected  me  with  my  grandfather  Everett.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  very  amiable  and, 
I  should  think,  public-spirited  man.  He  was  the  minister  of  the  church  which  old  people 
remember  as  Dr.  Kirkland's,  Mr.  Young's,  and  Mr.  Tilden's  church,  which  was  burned 
down  in  the  Boston  fire.  I  believe  he  was  a  patriotic,  thoughtful,  and  even  learned  man, 
very  much  loved  by  his  parishioners.  But  his  health  was  delicate;  and  in  1792,  as  Dr. 
Pierce  said,  he  retired  from  the  ministry.     His  brother,  Moses  Everett,  was  already  the 


One  of  the  "  Flames. 


_.-^?t^^^ 


^M*-^-'^V-^_^ 


^^Ard  IMt^^' 


^''^S^^'^ 


Edward  Everett  hou^e 


^'T^^U^' 


i 


The  Everett  House  33 

minister  of  the  First  Church  in  Dorchester  ;  and,  as  I  suppose,  it  was  at  his  suggestion 
that  Mr.  Oliver  Everett  bought  the  Oliver  house,  and  removed  with  his  young  family 
there. 

In  this  house  two  years  afterward  Edward  Everett,  afterward  Governor  of  this 
State,  was  born  ;  and  in  1796  my  own  mother  was  born  there.  So  it  happened  that  in  all 
my  childhood  Dorchester, —  with  its  "Love  Lane,"  with  the  old  burial-ground  where 
"  snappers "  grew  (the  cucubalus  of  the  botanists),  with  Dorchester  Neck,  now  South 
Boston,  to  which  people  went  for  sea-baths  in  summer, —  Dorchester,  which  started  such 
stories  as  these,  was  dear  to  my  infancy.  I  may  say  that  the  first  time  and  the  last  time 
I  was  ever  thrown  from  a  horse  was  when  I  was  si.x  years  old  and  had  been  taken  out  on 
horseback  to  see  my  grandfather's  house  in  Dorchester.  As  I  rode  in,  some  boys  in 
South  Boston  stoned  the  horse.  He  ran  away,  and  pitched  me  off,  of  which  all  I  recollect 
is  that  my  legs  were  not  long  enough  to  go  into  the  stirrups,  and  I  was  riding  with  my 
feet  in  the  leathers  of  the  saddle. 

Here  the  Rev.  Oliver  Everett  died  in  1802.  I  was  able  last  year  to  purchase  a  copy 
of  his  eulogy  on  George  Washington,  a  book  which  I  have  long  been  eager  to  own. 
It  is  an  interesting  tribute  to  Washington,  delivered  on  the  occasion  of  his  death,  before 
a  public  meeting  of  the  people  of  Dorchester,  and  contains  one  or  two  anecdotes  of 
Washington  which  I  have  never  seen  anywhere  else. 

One  of  the  recollections  of  those  early  days  is  that  my  uncle  Ale.xander  Everett,  who 
was  older  than  Edward  Everett,  was  as  a  young  man  one  of  the  curators  of  the  Dor- 
chester Free  Library,  which  had  been  set  on  foot,  as  I  rather  think,  by  Moses  and 
Oliver  Everett.  The  library  was  always  open  on  Saturdays ;  and  Mr.  Alexander  Everett 
used  to  tell  the  story  that  people  would  send  down  for  books,  and  that  the  messenger 
would  say,  "Mother  wants  two  books, —  a  sermon  book  and  another  book."  This  shows 
the  happy  union  of  secular  and  religious  thought  in  the  community  at  that  time. 

Of  the  after  history  of  this  house  I  wish  you  would  ask  some  Dorchester  boy  or  girl 
to  give  us  in  some  way  the  detail.  I  knew  it  when  I  was  a  man  as  the  home  of  the 
brothers  Richardson,  two  accomplished  and  charming  gentlemen,  who  gave  their  lives,  I 
may  say,  to  horticulture.  The  garden  which  they  had  made  behind  and  around  the  old 
house  was  one  of  the  beautiful,  I  might  say  extraordinary,  gardens  of  Boston.  I  always 
remember  that  one  of  the  Richardsons  said  to  me  that  in  certain  years,  which  he  named, 
he  had  raised  four  thousand  peonies  from  the  seed.  It  proved  that  none  of  the  vari- 
eties were  valuable  enough  to  be  maintained,  and  after  three  or  four  years  he  destroyed 
all  the  four  thousand,  so  that  he  might  begin  again.  It  is  a  fine  illustration  of  a  good 
many  things, —  of  the  lavish  richness  of  nature,  of  the  necessity  of  a  law  of  selection, 
and  of  the  infinite  faith  and  confidence  of  man,  the  child  of  God,  who  has  to  determine  to 
"get  the  best." 

The  name  of  Edward  Everett  Square  must  henceforth  preserve  the  memory  of  the 

old  home.     But  there  are  some  of  us  who  will  recollect  it  both  with  joy  and  with  sorrow, — 

with  joy  for  the  happiness  of  the  children  who  grew  up  there,  with  sorrow  that  a  rising 

generation  shall  not  see  with  their  own  eyes  how  their  fathers  builded,  perhaps,  better 

than  they  knew. 

Edward  E.  Hale. 


THE  BIRTHDAY  OF  DORCHESTER. 

HE  first  shipload  of  our  Dorchester  people  did  not  much  lilce  it  that  they  were 
landed  at  Nantascot  instead  of  somewhere  on  the  banks  of  Charles  River,  as 
they  had  intended.  The  place  where  Captain  Squeb  insisted  on  leaving 
them  seemed  altogether  bleak  and  inhospitable.  They  had  been  seventy 
days  at  sea.  They  were  weary  and  sick,  and  their  cattle  were  nearly  famished.  This 
did  not  correspond  at  all  to  the  goodly  region  that  Ralph  and  Richard  Sprague,  two 
honest  Dorsetshire  men,  had  spied  out  for  them  last  year.  Besides,  there  were  already 
"  Old  Planters  "  on  the  spot, —  three  families,  at  least ;  and  it  did  not  look  as  if  there 
would  be  a  living  for  any  more.  So  they  started  out  exploring,  determined  to  find  a  loca- 
tion more  suitable  to  their  needs. 

A  company  of  ten,  under  Captain  Southcote,  with  Roger  Clap  as  diarist  of  the 
expedition,  set  out  for  a  voyage  up  the  Charles,  in  a  boat  borrowed  from  one  of  the  "  Old 
Planters."  They  went  as  far  as  the  present  Watertown,  where  they  landed,  thinking  that 
they  had  found  the  promised  land.  Here  they  remained  for  a  day  or  so,  having  friendly 
interviews  with  the  Indians,  and  looking  about  for  a  place  of  settlement.  This  spot  is 
still  called  Dorchester  Fields.     It  is  near  the  site  of  the  United  States  Arsenal. 

In  the  mean  time,  however,  others  of  their  number  had  also  been  on  a  voyage 
of  discovery,  and  had  found  a  point  of  land  much  nearer  Nantascot,  which  offered  fine 
grazing  for  their  cattle.  This  they  decided  to  occupy  temporarily,  intending  later  to 
settle  permanently  at  some  place  on  the  Charles  River.  Captain  Southcote  and  his 
company  were  recalled,  and  it  was  decided  to  land  upon  the  south  side  of  this  desirable 
neck  which  the  Indians  called  Mattapannock.  The  spot  has  borne  the  name  Old  Harbor 
ever  since.  They  did  not,  however,  "sit  down  upon  "this  fine  grazing  land,  but  left  it 
for  the  exclusive  use  of  their  cattle.  How  good  the  sweet  June  grass  must  have  seemed 
to  those  hungry  creatures  !  After  seventy  days  at  sea  they  needed  the  touch  and  the 
smell  and  the  taste  of  it  to  convince  them  that  they  had  not  turned  into  salt  beef. 

It  was  now  fully  the  middle  of  the  week  when  this  removal  began,  which  must  have 
been  attended  by  many  difficulties,  not  to  say  dangers.  Hastily  constructed  booths 
of  boughs  and  bark,  with  tents,  were  all  their  shelter.  The  making  of  these  and  the 
assorting  of  their  scanty  household  goods  must  have  fully  occupied  their  time  until 
Saturday  night.  Dr.  Harris,  in  his  centennial  address,  says:  "Then  they  rested  from 
their  labors,  that  they  might  hallow  the  Sabbath  and  unite  in  praising  God  who  had 
brought  them  safely  over  the  ocean  and  found  a  place  for  them  to  dwell  in  and  furnished 
a  table  in  the  wilderness.  They  sang  a  portion  of  the  ninetieth  Psalm.  It  was  the 
Lord's  song  in  a  strange  land.     The  air  was  Freedom,  the  symphony  joyous." 

Thou.  Lord,  h.ist  beene  our  sure  defence, 

Our  place  of  ease  and  rest, 
In  all  times  past,  yea,  so  long  since 

As  cannot  be  exprest. 


The  Birthday  of  Dorchester 

Refresh  us  with  thy  mercy  soone, 
And  then  our  joy  shall  be  : 

All  times  so  long  as  time  shall  last 
In  heart  rejoyce  shall  we. 

Oh,  let  thy  worke  and  power  appeare 
And  on  thy  servants  light : 

And  shew  unto  thy  children  deare 
Thy  glory  and  thy  might. 

Lord,  let  thy  grace  and  mercy  stand 

On  us  thy  ser\'ants  thus : 
Confirm  the  workes  we  take  in  hand, 

Lord,  prosper  them  to  us. 


35 


This  was  the  6th  of  June,  O.S.,  the  17th  according  to  our  calendar.  It  might 
well  be  celebrated  as  the  birthday  of  Dorchester,  though  it  is  not  probable  that  the 
settlers  finally  decided  to  remain  on  this  location,  and  began  laying  out  their  town  plot 
before  midsummer. 


/ 


^X 


EARLY  INDUSTRIES. 


i 


HE  successful  power  of  old  Dorchester  was  that  of  masterful  men,  directing 
enterprises  and  pushing  economic  pursuits.  The  most  noteworthy  contribu- 
tion of  New  England  to  the  world's  history  is  in  her  steady  application  of 
common  sense  to  the  problem  of  living.  We  know  that  a  higher  principle 
than  mere  gain  was  in  the  minds  of  the  early  settlers,  yet  there  was  some  common  clay 
in  these  men  and  women ;  and  they  also  hoped  to  better  their  condition  economically 
and  socially.  The  early  settlers  of  Dorchester,  as  we  know,  evidently  were  attracted  by 
the  salt  marshes,  which  offered  food  for  their  cattle,  and  by  the  Neponset  River,  which  has 
been  identified  with  the  whole  history  of  Dorchester  down  to  the  present  day.  The  coun- 
try furnished  springs,  brooks,  and  water-power  which  they  were  not  slow  to  utilize.  The 
swarming  myriads  of  fish  were  the  chief  motor  in  starting  the  round  of  exchange.  The 
profit  of  early  corn  planting  was  large,  especially  when  the  crop  was  converted  into  beaver 
through  trade  with  the  Indians,  beaver  being  in  demand  for  use  as  currency  in  all  transac- 
tions. 

Accounts  of  the  early  fisheries  are  meagre ;  but  history  says  that  the  future  of  the 
country  was  assured  by  merchants  and  traders  who  came  to  Dorchester,  trained  in  Dorset, 
Devon,  or  elsewhere,  and  were  the  first  to  set  up  the  trade  of  fishing.  In  early  times 
Neponset  River  was  full  of  fish  of  various  kinds,  which  afforded  a  large  revenue  to  the  early 
settlers,  and  contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  the  support  of  the  inhabitants  through  the 
protracted  wars  of  the  last  century.  In  1634  the  General  Court  granted  to  Israel  Stough- 
ton  a  right  to  build  a  weir  below  his  mill,  upon  condition  that  he  was  to  sell  the  alewives 
at  five  shillings  per  thousand  and  as  much  less  as  he  could  afford.  Of  the  quantity  of  ale- 
wives  then  taken  we  have  no  account,  but  from  the  price  we  should  think  them  very 
plenty.  In  1681  the  town  granted  Ezra  Clap  and  Thomas  Swift  liberty  to  catch  fish  at 
Neponset  and  to  make  a  stage  for  the  purpose.  From  an  old  diary  of  1769  we  extract  the 
following :  — 

"  Caught  2,000  shad  one  day  in  the  seine." 

"  Made  a  large  haul  of  shad.     Caught  4,000.     Sent  40  barrels  to  Boston." 

"  Caught  3,000  shad.     Carried  80  barrels  to  Boston." 

Shad  was  the  principal  stock  in  trade,  and  it  is  said  that  the  hardy  fishermen  always 
waited  for  moonlight  to  spread  their  seines.  There  was  no  light  upon  the  Gurnet,  and  no 
beacon  on  the  bay  to  protect  the  lone  fishermen  ;  and  they  were  imperilled  by  the  Indians. 
Yet  they  were  not  daunted  in  their  regular  exercise  of  this  industry,  which  greatly  aided 
in  consolidating  the  settlements  on  the  shore.  These  old  fishermen  were  born  traders, 
and  they  have  been  rightly  called  "  hucksters  of  the  sea." 

Without  ships,  no  industries ;  and,  without  industries,  agriculture  would  languish, — 
thought  the  Dorchester  fathers.  And  we  find  ship-building  carried  on  in  Dorchester  from 
1640  to  1815.  Shallops  of  thirty  or  forty  tons'  burden  were  built  at  or  near  the  landing- 
place  called  Gulliver's  Creek  as  early  as  the  first  year  mentioned.     In  1693  Enoch  Bad- 


Early  Industries  37 

dock  built   the  ship  '*  Mary  and  Sarah,"  receiving  for  the  same  ^2,700.     Some  of  the 
vessels  here  built  lasted  into  the  present  century. 

When  farming  was  established,  and  wheat  and  maize  plentiful  enough  to  require  mills 
for  grinding,  the  primitive  mortars  borrowed  from  the  Indians  gave  place  to  millstones 
driven  by  wind  and  water.  Dorchester  claims  the  first  water  mill,  built  by  Israel  Stough- 
ton,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1634  the  waters  of  the  Neponset  turned  the  first  wheel  ever 
set  upon  its  shores,  and  ground  the  first  corn  ever  ground  by  water-power  in  New  Eng- 
land. This  mill  proved  of  incalculable  advantage  to  the  Dorchester  Plantation,  and  gave 
name  and  character  to  the  locality. 

Before  railroads  were  known  and  bridges  obstructed  the  passage  of  the  stream,  the 
head  of  navigation  on  the  Neponset  River  was  a  point  of  no  little  importance.  The  centre 
of  trade  was  a  large  wholesale  and  retail  store  of  Daniel  Vose,  a  man  of  great  business 
activity  and  capacity ;  also,  a  leading  man  of  his  day.  He  seems  to  have  been  the  factor 
of  the  farmers  and  producers  for  a  wide  section  of  country.  Loaded  teams  bringing  in 
merchandise  from  country  stores  made  this  their  terminus,  and  received  in  exchange  West 
Indian  goods  and  other  commodities.  Butter,  cheese,  eggs,  flaxseed,  and  hoop-poles  were 
the  chief  articles  of  traffic  ;  and  in  return  for  them  the  store  furnished  everything  from  a 
hogshead  of  molasses  to  a  paper  of  pins.  Mr.  V^ose  owned  sloops  running  to  Boston,  Salem, 
and  Gloucester,  to  meet  the  demands  of  his  business  and  carry  the  various  products  of 
the  mills  already  located.  In  1833  navigation  on  the  river  reached  its  greatest  extent, 
when  seventy-four  vessels  of  an  aggregate  size  of  six  thousand  tons  discharged  their  freight 
at  the  village.  Thus  on  the  Neponset  River,  which  now  looks  so  small  to  us,  were  started 
most  of  the  industries  which  were  so  important  to  the  welfare  of  the  early  inhabitants  and 
have  since  contributed  to  the  prosperity  and  wealth  of  the  whole  country. 

With  the  dread  of  the  Indian  war-whoop  at  any  moment,  Dorchester  attempted  the 
manufacture  of  gunpowder  in  1675.  Randolph  claimed  that  it  was  as  good  and  strong 
as  the  best  English  powder.     This  was  the  first  powder-mill  in  the  country. 

The  rolling  and  slitting  mill  in  Dorchester  was  an  important  industrial  link,  when  the 
human  hand  did  most  of  the  work  now  done  by  automatic  machinery.  The  mill  took  the 
bar  iron,  rolled  it  into  a  ribbon,  then  slit  it  into  rods,  which  the  farmer  bought,  and,  while 
sitting  by  his  kitchen  fire,  hammered  it  into  nails.  The  slitting  process  was  a  secret 
jealously  guarded  by  the  craft ;  but  a  man  by  the  name  of  Hashian  Thomas  disguised  him- 
self, and  hung  around  the  mills,  and,  when  the  workmen  were  at  dinner,  stole  the  principles 
of  the  machinery,  and  built  a  machine  for  himself. 

A  new  enterprise,  small  in  pounds,  but  large  in  power,  was  the  establishment  of  the 
first  paper-mill.  In  the  year  1750  Thomas  Hancock,  Mr.  Deering,  and  other  gentlemen  of 
Boston,  desirous  to  introduce  the  manufacture  of  paper  into  the  province,  erected  a  mill  in 
Dorchester,  procured  utensils  and  such  workmen  as  could  be  obtained,  but,  after  a  few 
years  of  experimenting,  found  it  a  losing  business,  ceased  operations,  and  sold  the  mill  for 
a  small  sum  to  Mr.  Jeremiah  Smith,  of  Milton.  It  remained  unoccupied  till  about  the 
year  1760,  when  Mr.  Boies,  who  married  Mr.  Smith's  daughter,  found  an  Englishman  who 
understood  the  business  and  who  made  a  success  of  it.  In  those  days  there  were  no  junk 
men  to  collect  rags.  The  mill-owners  advertised  that  they  would  be  in  Boston  on  Satur- 
day mornings  at  a  certain  store,  and  would  purchase  rags.  The  women  and  boys  came  on 
those  days,  bringing  their  rag  bags  and  selling  to  the  manufacturer.  The  great-grandsons 
of  Mr.  Boies  are  running  a  paper-mill  on  the  same  spot.     There  are  about  as  many  rags 


3^  The   Dorchester   Book 

used  at  the  present  mill  in  one  day  as  Mr.  Boies  used  in  a  year.  In  connection  with  the 
advertisement  for  rags  appeared  the  following  bit  of  poetry,  published  in  the  Boston  Neivs 
Letter  in  1 769  :  — 

"  Rags  are  beauties  which  concealed  lie ; 

But,  when  in  Paper,  how  it  charms  the  eye ! 

Pray,  save  your  rags,  new  beauties  to  discover : 

For  of  paper  truly  every  one's  a  lover. 

By  Pen  and  Press  such  knowledge  is  displayed 

As  wouldn't  exist  if^Paper  was  not  made. 

Wisdom  of  things  mysterious,  divine. 

Illustriously  doth  on  Paper  shine." 

In  the  fall  of  1764  a  wayfarer  who  seemed  to  be  in  distress  and  in  need  of  sympath}', 
giving  his  name  as  John  Hannan,  from  Ireland,  a  chocolate-maker  by  trade,  was  loitering 
around  the  paper-mill.  Mr.  James  Boies  carefully  investigated  his  case,  and  was  con- 
vinced of  his  sincerity.  He  interceded  in  his  behalf,  and  induced  Wentworth  &  Sons, 
who  at  that  time  were  erecting  a  new  mill  on  the  site  of  the  old  powder-mill,  to  make 
provision  for  the  manufacture  of  chocolate.  This  was  done ;  and  on  the  spot  where  the 
large  chocolate-mills  now  stand,  owned  by  the  late  Henry  L.  Pierce,  John  Hannan,  in  the 
spring  of  1765,  made  the  first  chocolate  manufactured  in  this  country. 

In  1798  Benjamin  Crehore,  who  was  born  in  Milton,  was  assisting  in  getting  up 
machinery  and  appliances  of  the  stage  for  the  play  of  "  Forty  Thieves,"  which  was 
soon  to  be  introduced  in  Boston.  His  inventive  skill  was  so  admired  by  the 
leader  of  the  orchestra  that  he  applied  to  him  to  repair  his  broken  bass-viol.  Mr. 
Crehore  undertook  the  job,  and  is  said  to  have  improved  the  tone  of  the  instrument. 
This  resulted  in  his  beginning  the  manufacture  of  bass-viols,  the  first  ever  made  in  this 
country,  and  said  to  rival  those  imported.  One  of  them  at  the  present  time  is  in  the 
possession  of  Mr.  John  Preston,  of  Hyde  Park.  In  the  early  part  of  this  century  a  good 
deacon  of  Dorchester  was  visiting  at  Thomaston,  Me.,  and,  being  quite  musical,  was 
trying  the  big  bass-viol  belonging  to  his  friend.  He  remarked,  "  What  a  fine-toned 
instrument  this  is ! "  "  Yes,"  said  his  friend,  "  we  prize  it  very  highly  for  its  tone  and 
its  great  antiquity;  but  we  don't  know  just  how  old  it  is."  This  led  the  deacon  to  look  it 
over  very  carefully  ;  and,  looking  through  the  opening  in  front,  he  discovered  a  small  paper 
within,  which  read,  "  Ben  Crehore,  maker,  Milton."  And  this  gave,  approximately,  the 
desired  date.  Mr.  Crehore's  reputation  in  the  musical  world  of  that  day  caused  all  sorts 
of  disabled  musical  instruments  to  flow  into  his  shop  for  repairs.  Among  these  was 
a  piano.  After  analyzing  it  and  mastering  its  movements,  he  entered  upon  the  manufact- 
ure of  pianos.  The  first  piano  in  this  country  was  made  by  Benjamin  Crehore,  in 
Milton. 

Upon  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Neponset  River,  Paul  Revere,  of  Revolutionary 
notoriety,  established  the  first  copper  works  in  America  in  1801,  for  the  making  of  brass 
guns,  bells,  etc.  It  is  probable  that  the  bell  which  now  rings  in  the  Second  Church, 
Dorchester,  was  there  cast.  He  made  two  bells  for  the  Second  Church.  The  first  one 
having  cracked,  he  cast  a  second  one,  which  has  withstood  the  wear  of  time  till  now. 
The  bill  for  the  same,  signed  by  Paul  Revere,  is  now  in  the  possession  of  the  church. 

The  manufacture  of  rum  in  Dorchester  was  a  large  factor  in  the  movement  of  trade. 
The  lumbermen  and  fisher-folk  demanded  a  strong  stimulant  to  offset  their  heavy  diet 


••  *(1'*^>   - . 


#       * 


TntWPOHSn.  /ro/n  Cenfraf /t^e. 


J.v 


-:t 


// 


7\eP0n,:)L-.'    KJVtR. 


,  L.ur,M/V: 


Early  Industries  39 

of  pork  and  Indian  corn.  At  the  present  day  it  is  hardly  called  a  necessity;  but  our 
good  old  fathers  could  not  raise  a  building,  hang  a  bell,  or  gather  the  harvest  without  it. 
We  find  one  of  the  old  merchants  advertising  his  goods  in  the  following  poetic  strain  :  — 

"  Lay  out  your  dollar  when  you  come, 
And  you  shall  have  a  glass  of  rum  " 

and  then,  with  a  keen  eye  to  business,  adds :  — 

"  N.B. —  Since  man  to  man  is  so  unjust, 
'Tis  hard  to  say  whom  I  can  tru.st. 
I  Ve  trusted  many,  to  my  sorrow  : 
H.iy  me  to-day,  I'll  trust  to-morrow." 

The  woman  who  finds  so  much  enjoyment  in  playing  whist  (if  she  lives  in  Dorches- 
ter) should  have  the  added  pleasure  of  knowing  that  the  first  playing  cards  ever  manufact- 
ured in  this  country  were  made  in  Dorchester.  She  can  also  remember,  as  she  enjoys 
her  chocolate  and  fancy  cracker  at  the  club  tea,  that  they  were  both  first  manufactured 
in  Dorchester. 

Weaving  and  spinning  were  done  at  home.  The  young  women  realized  fifty  cents 
a  week,  as  they  went  from  house  to  house  with  their  hand-looms.  Those  who  owned  silk- 
looms  must  have  been  especially  skilled  in  the  art. 

The  War  of  1812  created  a  great  demand  for  broadcloth  and  satinets;  and,  to  meet 
this,  a  large  stone  mill  was  erected  for  the  manufacture  of  woollen  cloth  and  chocolate. 
The  manufacture  of  the  broadcloths  and  satinets  continued  for  some  five  years  ;  and,  as  the 
demand  decreased,  the  woollen  part  of  the  mill  was  shut  down. 

So  many  things  were  first  manufactured  in  Dorchester  that  the  rest  of  the  world  is 
under  obligations  to  prove  that  any  good  thing  was  first  made  anywhere  else. 

Elizabeth  W.  Hazard. 


DORCHESTER  HEIGHTS. 

S  early  as  June  15,  1775,  the  Committee  of  Safety  had  recommended  that  one 
or  more  of  the  hills  of  Dorchester  should  be  occupied  and  fortified  by  the 
patriot  army,  but  it  was  not  until  the  following  March  that  Washington  and 
his  generals  found  it  possible  to  undertake  this  important  work. 

By  this  time  Colonel  Henry  Knox  had  brought  in  a  good  supply  of  siege-guns  and 
powder  and  ball.  Many  of  these  heavy  guns  had  been  dragged  on  sledges  from  Ticon- 
deroga,  at  the  cost  of  tremendous  toil  and  hardship.  But  their  value  in  the  events  which 
were  to  follow  more  than  justified  the  effort  of  getting  them  to  Cambridge. 

In  council  of  war  Quartermaster-General  Miflflin  advocated  the  4th  of  March  as  the 
time  to  seize  and  fortify  Dorchester  Heights,  saying  that,  the  next  day  being  the  anniver- 
sary of  the  Boston  Massacre,  "  it  would  have  a  wonderful  effect  upon  the  spirits  of  the 
troops."  The  movement  was  decided  upon ;  and  Generals  Ward,  Thomas,  Spencer,  and 
Mifflin  were  put  in  charge  of  it. 

Directly  after  this  council  Washington  writes,  "  I  am  preparing  to  take  post  on  Dor- 
chester Heights,  to  try  if  the  enemy  will  be  so  kind  as  to  come  out  to  us,"  and  "  I  should 
think,  if  anything  will  induce  them  to  hazard  an  engagement,  it  will  be  our  attempt  to  for- 
tify these  heights,  as,  on  that  event's  taking  place,  we  shall  be  able  to  command  a  great 
part  of  the  town  and  almost  the  whole  harbor,  and  to  make  them  rather  disagreeable  than 
otherwise."  Among  Washington's  general  orders  at  this  time  was  one  forbidding  card- 
playing  among  officers  and  soldiers.  The  service  of  God  and  the  country  was  deemed 
too  serious  business  at  this  crisis  to  be  mixed  up  with  any  sort  of  levity  or  immorality. 

Out  in  the  Roxbury  camp  there  was  tremendous  bustle  of  preparation  for  the  new 
movement.  Immense  quantities  of  "screwed"  (baled)  hay  were  brought  in  carts.  Oxen 
and  every  sort  of  implement  for  intrenching  were  being  collected.  Barrels  and  hogs- 
heads were  filled  with  earth  and  stones.  Months  before,  Mififlin  had  sent  a  lieutenant 
and  thirty-six  men  out  to  the  farm  of  John  Homans,  in  Milton,  to  cut  silver  birch  and 
swamp-brush  and  bind  them  into  fascines.  The  canny  quartermaster-general  had 
thought  such  things  might  be  handy  to  have  around.  So  now  they  are  all  ready ;  and 
he  sends  John  Boies,  of  Dorchester,  and  Mr.  Goddard,  of  Brookline,  to  bring  them  in. 

At  sunset  on  March  2  a  furious  cannonading  was  directed  against  the  British  ships 
in  the  harbor,  from  Somerville,  Roxbury,  and  East  Cambridge,  to  distract  attention  from 
the  movement  toward  Dorchester  Heights.  This  was  kept  up  during  the  3d  and  4th ; 
and  it  was  about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  4th  when  the  expedition  started, 
under  command  of  General  Thomas.  First  came  eight  hundred  troops,  then  three 
hundred  wagons  bearing  the  spades,  crowbars,  hatchets,  hammers,  and  nails.  Straw  was 
strewn  along  the  road  to  mufifle  the  sound  of  the  wheels.  Then  came  the  main  body 
of  the  troops,  followed  by  wagons  with  bales  of  hay,  the  barrels  of  stones  and  earth,  and 
the  heavy  siege-guns. 

This  procession  reached  the  Heights  quietly  and  in  perfect  order,  and  there  found 
Colonel   Richard   Gridley,  the   chief  engineer,  who  had  already  marked   out   the   plan 


Dorchester  Heights  4» 

of  fortification.  Digging  was  out  of  the  question,  for  the  ground  was  frozen  eighteen 
inches  deep.  Therefore,  the  defences  were  made  entirely  of  hay,  barrels  of  earth  and 
stones,  with  fascines  and  chandeliers.  At  the  base  of  the  Heights  were  chevauxde-frise 
made  of  the  apple-trees  of  the  neighborhood.  Colonel  Samuel  Pierce,  of  Dorchester,  was 
there  with  his  men  ;  and  he  writes  in  his  diary  as  follows  :  "  March  4.  Our  people  went 
on  to  Dorchester  Neck  and  built  two  forts  in  the  same  night,  and  there  was  380  teems 
and  about  5,cxx)  men, —  the  most  work  don  that  ever  was  don  in  one  night  in  New 
England." 

When  the  morning  of  the  5th  dawned,  Howe  and  his  officers  rubbed  their  eyes  wiih 
amazement.  It  seemed  to  them  that  at  least  twelve  thousand  of  the  rebels  must  have  been 
at  work  to  have  accomplished  so  much  in  one  night.  It  was  certain  that  these  busy 
patriots  had  "don"  altogether  too  much  for  Boston  to  be  any  longer  a  comfortable  nest 
for  British  troops,  unless  these  fortifications  could  be  captured.  An  attack  was  planned, 
but  was  not  carried  out ;  and  with  every  hour  the  American  position  grew  stronger.  Nook's 
Hill,  still  nearer  to  Boston  than  the  first  location,  was  next  seized  and  fortified.  By  the 
8th  of  March  Howe  had  decided  to  leave  Boston,  and  sent  word  under  a  flag  of  truce  that 
he  would  go  without  destroying  the  city  if  his  troops  were  not  fired  upon.  By  the  17th 
he  had  gotten  his  eight  thousand  troops  and  some  nine  hundred  Tory  citizens  of  Boston 
on  shipboard,  and  had  started  for  Halifa.x.  But  he  left  behind  two  hundred  cannon, 
an  immense  quantity  of  muskets,  military  stores  of  many  kinds,  and  ten  times  as  much 
powder  and  ball  as  Washington's  army  had  ever  seen  before.  Boston  and  New  England 
were  freed  from  the  presence  of  the  enemy  by  this  one  great  stroke,  which  had  cost  the 
patriots  not  more  than  twenty  lives. 


THE  DORCHESTER  WOMEN'S  CLUB. 


The  closing  years  of  this  nineteenth  century  are  rich  with  signifi- 
cance to  the  feminine  portion  of  the  present  generation,  as  bringing 
in  their  train  the  inspiration  of  union  among  women,  and  of  organiza- 
tion adapted  to  the  needs  of  differing  environments.  In  the  staid  and 
settled  old  towns  of  Massachusetts,  under  the  rigor  of  encrusted  social 
order,  homes  were  as  isolated,  in  any  large  and  sympathetic  sense,  as 
though  stretches  of  virgin  forest  still  rendered  them  remote  and  inac- 
cessible ;  and  the  spontaneous  rapidity  which  the  club  movement 
among  women  obtained  in  our  own  State  and  throughout  the  breadth 
of  the  land  in  the  early  nineties  proved  convincingly  the  anxious  desire 
of  busy  women  to  shake  off  the  fetters  of  absurd  convention,  and  to 
■rryj-,'.  "v       meet  other  busy  women  on  common  ground,  where  counsel  might  be 

'^^  taken  together  on  all  things  near  to  women's  minds  and  hearts. 

A  little  spark  was  lighted,  in  1892,  in  the  Harvard  Street  section  of  Dorchester, 
which  flamed  among  the  kindling  in  all  the  prim  little  corners  of  our  formal  old  town  ; 
and,  lo  !  within  three  months  three  hundred  eager  women  were  conferring  together,  and 
perfecting  an  organization  which  should  be  broad,  simple,  and  elastic.  Twice  since  then 
has  the  limit  of  membership  been  advanced,  and  to-day  five  hundred 
women  stand  enrolled  as  willing  workers  in  and  faithful  supporters 
of  the  Dorchester  Woman's  Club.  Successive  boards  of  officers, 
changing  in  wise  progression,  have  maintained  the  custom  first 
established,  and  presented  annually  sixteen  programs,  stimulating 
to  the  thought,  the  sympathies,  or  the  artistic  sense  of  the  attend- 
ing members,  and  catering  at  times  to  their  palates  as  well, 
since  even  women  grow  wondrous  open-hearted  over  their  teacups. 
For  several  seasons  a  succession  of  evening  meetings  has  enabled 
the  Club  to  dispense  its  hospitality  to  the  querying,  sometimes 
sceptical,  but  ever  curious  husbands,  fathers,  and  brothers  of  its 
members.  As  a  natural  evolution,  kindred  tastes  and  needs  have 
resulted  in  kindred  researches ;  and  many  classes  have  formed,  fulfilled  their  respective 
missions,  and  disbanded.  A  guild  of  singers,  however,  has  become 
a  permanent  joy  and  credit  to  the  Club;  and  a  company  of  delvers 
after  antiquarian  lore,  growing  larger  and  more  enthusiastic  with 
each  passing  year,  has  frequently  contributed  for  its  pleasure  such 
store  of  studious  acquirement  as  to  make  it  justly  proud. 

The  policy  of  the  Club  has  been  ever  one  of  helpful  suggestion 
to  its  members  and  of  sympathetic  communion  and  free-hearted 
recreation  among  them.  Not  until  the  project  of  a  club  home,  which 
had  been  cherished  from  the  earliest  days,  began  slowly  to  take 
tangible  shape  did  the  strength  of  the  organization  become  active 


.RORe/i ESTER    \COnAt^^   CLUR   MoU^t: 


-;• 


The  Dorchester  Women's  Club  43 

and  apply  itself  vigorously  to  the  prosecution   of   earnest    and    sustained    work.     Amid 

perplexing  problems,  not  the  least  of  which  was  the  handling  of  business  details  in  a 

club  of  the  nature  already  described,  a  Siamese  twin,  in  the  shape  of  a  new  corporation, 

was  evolved,  which  should   bear  the  burden  and   the  responsibility,  conduct   necessary 

business  with  its  own  board  of  directors,  attend  to  the  burning  questions 

of  capital  and  revenue,  and  provide  for  the  Club  "all  the  comforts  of  a 

home"   for   a   stated   annual   rental.     Through   a   happy   combination   of 

bubbling  enthusiasm  and  fortunate  ignorance  of  legislative  delays,  the  new 

corporation  obtained  from  an  indulgent  General  Court,  out  of  due  season,  a 

special  charter,  authorizing  a  lower  price  on  the  stock   than  statute  law 

permitted.     By  its   by-laws   the   union  with  the  Club  was  at  once  made 

absolute,  since   active,  past,  and   prospective   club   members   were   alone 

eligible    to   the   new   corporation,   and    the    Club    itself,    in  its  corporate 

capacity,  was  made  the  only  unlimited  stockholder.     As  the  capital  was  gradually  amassed, 

the  most  timid  and  cautious  women  became  venturesome ;  and  a  building  was  finally 

determined  upon,  which  should  fill  a  long-felt  want,  in  the  trite  phrase,  and  become  a  boon 

to  all  Dorchester  citizens,  as  well  as  to  the  Club. 

The  Club-house,  designed  by  a  Dorchester  architect,  constructed  by  a  Dorchester 
builder,  owned  and  managed  by  Dorchester  women,  is  surely  a  representative  Dorchester 
institution.  And  the  club  members  derive  no  small  satisfaction  from  the  thought  that  in 
seven  brief  years  of  association  they  have  evolved  from 

"  Airy  nothing 
A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

Harriet  E.  Bean. 


LUCY  STONE. 

]UCY    STONE  made   her  home  in  Dorchester  from   1870  to   1893,  and  was 
president,  until  her  death,  of  the  Dorchester  Woman  Suffrage  League. 

Born  at  West  Brookfield,  Mass.,  in  18 18,  a  farmer's  daughter,  often  going 
barefoot  to  drive  the  cows,  by  starlight  before  dawn,  she  grew  up  a  vigor- 
ous, fearless  child,  eager  for  education,  and  especially  desirous  to  go  to  college  and  study 
Greek  and  Hebrew,  to  see  whether  the  texts  enjoining  the  subjection  of  women  were 
correctly  translated.  She  was  the  first  woman  in  Massachusetts  to  take  a  college  degree. 
To  get  it,  she  had  to  go  to  Oberlin,  then  the  only  college  that  admitted  girls.  She  picked 
berries  and  chestnuts,  and  sold  them  to  buy  books,  and  taught  district  schools,  studying 
and  teaching  alternately.  It  took  her  nine  years  to  earn  the  money  to  take  her  to 
Oberlin.  She  worked  her  way  through  college,  partly  by  teaching,  partly  by  doing 
housework  in  the  ladies'  boarding  hall  at  three  cents  an  hour.  She  graduated  with 
credit  in  1S47,  and  began  the  same  year  to  lecture  on  woman's  rights  and  the  abolition 
of  slavery. 

During  the  next  ten  years  she  lectured  widely  through  the  United  States  and  Canada 
to  immense  audiences,  drawn  together  by  curiosity  to  hear  a  woman,  and  held  by  her  rare 
eloquence  and  the  singular  sweetness  of  her  voice.  Often  she  put  up  the  posters  for  her 
own  meetings,  with  a  little  package  of  tacks  and  a  stone  picked  up  from  the  street. 
Sometimes  she  was  pelted.  Once  she  was  almost  stunned  by  a  hymn-book  hurled  at  her 
head.  On  another  occasion  she  was  played  upon  with  cold  water  through  a  hose.  But, 
when  she  could  gain  a  hearing,  the  charm  of  her  personality  almost  always  won  her 
audience ;  and  mobs  would  often  listen  to  her  when  they  howled  down  every  other 
speaker. 

In  1855  she  married  Henry  B.  Blackwell,  a  3'oung  merchant  of  Cincinnati,  an  active 
abolitionist  and  advocate  of  woman's  rights.  He  had  heard  her  speak  at  the  Boston 
State  House,  in  1853,  with  Wendell  Phillips  and  Theodore  Parker,  at  a  hearing  in  support 
of  a  woman  suffrage  petition,  headed  by  Louisa  Alcott's  mother ;  and  he  had  determined 
then  to  marry  her,  if  possible.  She  regarded  the  loss  of  a  wife's  name  at  marriage  as  a 
symbol  of  the  loss  of  her  individuality.  Eminent  lawj'ers,  including  Ellis  Gray  Loring 
and  Samuel  E.  Sevvall,  told  her  there  was  no  law  requiring  a  wife  to  change  her  name,  it 
was  only  a  custom ;  and  the  Chief  Justice  of  the  United  States  gave  her  his  unofficial 
opinion  to  the  same  effect.  Accordingly,  with  her  husband's  full  approval,  she  kept  her 
own  name. 

It  would  be  impossible  even  to  summarize  here  the  vast  amount  of  work  that  Mrs. 
Stone  did,  all  through  her  life,  in  behalf  of  equal  rights  for  women.  In  1869,  with 
William  Lloyd  Garrison,  George  William  Curtis,  Colonel  Higginson,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward 
Howe,  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore,  and  others,  she  organized  the  American  Woman  Suf- 
frage Association,  and  was  chairman  of  its  Executive  Committee  for  nearly  twenty  years. 
She  always  craved,  not  the  post  of  prominence,  but  the  post  of  work. 

Most  of  the  money  with  which  the  Woman' s  Jourtial  vi2LS  started,  in  1870,  was  raised 


The  Oldest  Apple-trees 


45 


by  her  efforts.     When  Mrs.  Livermore  resigned  the  editorship  in  1872,  Mrs.  Stone  and 
Mr.  Blackwell  took  charge  of  it,  and  carried  it  on  thereafter. 

Mrs.  Stone  was  a  small  woman,  with  a  low  voice,  calm  and  gentle  manners,  and 
a  face  beaming  with  motherliness.  She  was  one  of  the  most  beloved  citizens  of 
Dorchester;  and  when,  in  1893,  she  passed  away,  one  who  had  been  her  lifelong  oppo- 
nent said  that  the  death  of  no  woman  in  America  had  ever  called  out  so  wide-spread 
a  tribute  of  respect  and  esteem. 

Alice  Stone  Blackwell. 


THE  OLDEST  APPLE-TREES. 


•^^s^St^NE  of  the  early  happenings  in  Dorchester  whose  fruits  we  can  directly  enjoy 
■  K■il^l]■|  to-day  was  the  planting  of  an  apple  orchard  at  Fox  Point  by  Edward  Bul- 
^mCJ--^KJW  lock,  "  husbandman,"  as  he  was  called.  He  came  to  Dorchester  in  1635,  and 
■^     *^»  I     returned  to  England  in  1649,  "having  by  the  providence  of  God  a  calling  and 

determination  to  do  so  with  all    expedicon."     Some  of  these  ancient   trees  are  now  in 

bearing  and  are  of  great  size,  one  of  them  being  eight  feet  in  circumference. 

In  all  probability  these  are  the  oldest  apple-trees  in  New  England,  if  not  in  America. 

They  stand  upon  the  land  of  Mr.  James  H.  Stark,  of  Savin  Hill. 


TWO  OR  THREE  CLUBS. 

lOR  many  years  the  Old  Dorchester  Club  had  its  rooms  near  Field's  Corner ; 
but  in  1892  the  demand  for  larger  and  better  quarters  brought  about  a  reor- 
ganization, and  the  building  of  the  present  club-house  on  the  corner  of 
Pleasant  and  Pearl  Streets.  This  building  was  completed  and  occupied  in 
November  of  that  year.  Mr.  William  B.  Bird  was  president  at  the  time.  Much  interest 
was  felt  in  the  club  by  the  best  people  of  Dorchester,  and  shortly  after  the  opening  of  the 
new  club-house  the  membership  was  increased  from  two  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty. 
Since  then  the  club  has  been  very  prosperous  socially  and  financially.  Outwardly  the 
building  is  very  attractive,  and  within  it  is  all  that  can  be  desired  for  beauty  and  utility. 
In  the  large  and  handsome  parlors,  reading-rooms,  billiard-rooms,  and  banquet  halls,  to- 
gether with  four  spacious  bowling  alleys  and  the  fine  concert  hall,  the  members  find  every 
facility  for  social  enjoyment. 

The  success  of  the  Old  Dorchester  Club  has  been  in  its  management  and  the  har- 
mony between  officers  and  members.  Mr.  William  B.  Bird  continued  to  be  its  president 
during  1893  and  1894.  In  1895  Mr.  Thomas  F.  Temple  was  president;  in  1896,  Colonel 
Andrew  M.  Benson  ;  in  1897  and  1898,  Mr.  Frank  Huckins.  The  president  now  is  the  Hon. 
L.  C.  Southerd. 

The  club  does  not  selfishly  confine  its  privileges  to  men.  The  great  upper  hall  has 
been  the  scene  of  many  entertainments,  lectures,  and  concerts  to  which  members  have 
brought  their  families.  Ladies  are  always  welcome  to  the  parlors  on  the  second  floor 
arranged  for  their  use,  to  the  banquet  hall,  and  to  the  ladies'  bowling  alley.  As  a  means 
of  bringing  together  citizens  of  Dorchester's  wide-spread  territory  who  would  become 
acquainted  in  no  other  way,  this  club  has  been  a  great  benefit. 


One  of  the  well-known  Dorchester  clubs  is  the  Athena,  which  is  composed  of  seventy- 
five  wideawake  "bachelor  maids."  The  penalty  imposed  upon  members  for  leaving  the 
state  of  single  blessedness  is,  by  the  constitution  of  the  club,  transfer  to  associate  member- 
ship. It  is  only  fair  to  say,  however,  that  in  its  short  life  a  number  have  not  been 
deterred  from  incurring  this  heavy  penalty. 

The  club  was  organized  in  February,  1897,  with  a  nucleus  of  twenty-five  charter  mem- 
bers, the  object  being  to  draw  together  a  circle  of  the  younger  Dorchester  women  for 
mutual  improvement  and  enjoyment,  and  to  encourage  the  spirit  of  friendliness,  as  well  as 
to  contribute  a  share  to  the  progress  of  the  community.  In  October,  1897,  it  was  enrolled 
as  a  member  of  the  State  Federation.  Its  meetings  are  held  the  second  and  fourth  Satur- 
day evenings  of  each  month  in  the  parlors  of  the  Dorchester  Woman's  Club-house,  when 
original  papers  are  read  by  members  or  lectures  are  given  by  outside  talent,  with  an  occa- 
sional evening  devoted  to  music  or  to  some  social  form  of  entertainment. 

The  club  has  very  fittingly  chosen  the  name  of  the  Greek  goddess,  adopting  her  as  its 
presiding  genius,  and  the  owl  as  its  emblem. 

The  president  is  Miss  May  C.  Spencer ;  recording  secretary.  Miss  Stella  E.  Weaver. 


Two  or  Three  Qubs  47 

The  Chickatawbut  Club  came  into  the  world  with  a  mission  ;  and  it  is  not  a  discredit 
to  the  club  to  say  that  its  success,  much  as  it  has  accomplished,  has  been  but  partial.  Its 
mission  was  the  purification  of  politics,  and  the  club  was  conceived  during  the  municipal 
campaign  of  1888.  It  was  born  in  a  car  of  the  New  York  &  New  England  Railroad, 
somewhere  between  Boston  and  Har\'ard  Street,  its  parents  being  its  first  president,  the 
late  W.  Fred  W'hitcomb,  and  its  first  secretary  and  subsequent  president,  Charles  C.  Taft. 
It  was  named  by  the  Hon.  Thomas  W.  Bicknell,  and  christened  at  the  Boston  Tavern 
on  Feb.  23,  1889,  fourteen  witnesses  being  present.  There  were  at  first  but  thirteen,  but 
the  entire  party  refused  to  be  seated  until  the  hedges  were  beaten  for  a  fourteenth  guest 
to  nullify  such  sinister  influence  as  might  otherwise  obtain.  The  name  is  derived  from 
the  chief  of  the  tribe  of  Indians  which,  at  the  advent  of  Dorchester's  first  settlers,  dwelt 
on  the  banks  of  the  Neponset. 

The  club's  first  ofhcers  were  VV.  Fred  VVhitcomb,  president ;  Charles  C.  Taft  secretary ; 
Charles  H.  Nute,  treasurer.  Its  later  presidents  have  been  Frank  E.  Brigham,  Henry  F. 
Howe,  Edmund  F".  Snow,  Charles  C.  Taft,  Edward  Payson  Jackson,  Henry  B.  Blackwell, 
Henry  Richardson,  and  the  present  president,  Charles  A.  Young.  It  has  had  as  secre- 
taries Charles  C.  Taft,  Joseph  A.  E.  Stewart,  Alpheus  Sanford,  and  the  present  secretary, 
A.  Warren  Gould ;  as  treasurers,  Charles  H.  Nute,  Charles  C.  Taft,  and  T.  Henry 
Keenan. 

It  has  had  in  its  membership  one  former  United  States  senator,  and  has  had  as 
guests  and  speakers  three  other  United  States  senators  now  in  office.  A  frequent  guest 
and  speaker  has  been  the  present  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  John  D.  Long.  A  list  of  those 
who  have  spoken  before  the  club  in  its  more  than  ten  years  of  life  would  include  all 
of  the  local  candidates  for  office,  most  of  the  clergymen,  all  of  the  governors  and  lieuten- 
ant governors,  and  most  of  the  higher  State  officers  and  men  and  women  of  national 
and  international  reputation  in  politics,  art,  science,  and  letters.  It  is  a  man's  club, 
but  has  held  annual  ladies'  nights,  many  of  which  have  been  affairs  of  great  brilliancy, 
the  wives  of  governors,  congressmen,  and  senators,  and  women  famous  for  their  own 
work,  gracing  the  occasions.  First  and  last,  almost  every  prominent  man  in  Dorchester, 
who  was  also  a  Republican,  has  belonged  to  the  famous  Chickatawbut  Club. 

No  article  on  the  Chickatawbut  Club  would,  however,  be  complete  without  special 
mention  of  its  first  president,  Mr.  William  Fred  Whitcomb,  who  died  in  harness  shortly 
after  the  club  organized,  whose  loss  was  an  irreparable  one  to  the  club,  and  who  was 
deeply  mourned  by  thousands,  irrespective  of  everything  but  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Mr.  Whitcomb  died  in  the  early  prime  of  life,  a  man  of  exemplary  habits  in  every 
walk  of  life.     His  death  called  out  the  most  profound  and  touching  tributes  of  esteem  ; 
and  his  last  and  special  pride,  the  Chickatawbut  Club,  has  each  year  appointed  a  com 
mittee  to  place  flowers  on  his  grave  on  the  nation's  Decoration  Day. 


THE  DORCHESTER  SYMPHONY. 


I  BELIEVE  it  must  be  widely  known  that  Dorchester  is  the  home  of  musical 
genius,  the  favorite  resting-place  of  great  talent  and  the  fortunate  pos- 
sessor of  many  gifts.     Here  Art  has  come,  with   its   high    ideals,  its 
exacting  duties,  and  its  unspeakable  pleasures,  to  uplift  the  responsive 
listener   until,  at  length,  he  shall  have  the  masters  and   their 
noblest  works  among  his  daily  thoughts. 

It  is  only  through  the  earnestness  of  purpose  and 
splendid  enthusiasm  of  Mr.  Charles  McLaughlin  (the 
director)  that  an  orchestra  of  which  we  may  well  feel 
proud  has  been  brought  together  here.  It  is  composed 
of  the  best  amateurs  and  the  most  solid  and  steadfast 
lovers  of  the  highest  in  art.  Its  aims  are :  to  bring  us  into  a  long-desired  intimacy  with 
the  composers  whose  names  have  hitherto  been  more  familiar  than  their  works ;  to  do 
them  thorough  justice  and  attain  perfection  of  expression,  interpretation,  and  technique ; 
and  to  present  the  finest  available  soloists  (of  both  instrumental  and  vocal  music),  giving 
opportunities  to  young  artists  of  real  merit,  regardless  of  a  lack  of  public  recognition  ; 
to  work  not  selfishly  for  the  private  love  of  working,  but  for  the  public  sharing  of  the 
worth  that  becomes  greater  according  to  the  encouragement  and  appreciation  which  it 
receives. 

"  The  mother  hopes  her  soldier  son  will  be 
A  hero ;  and  a  hero  she  beholds, 
Bom  of  the  brave,  and  flattered  heart  of  youth." 

Because  our  listeners,  directors,  and  friends  have  anticipated  success  for  our  splendid 
labor,  the  result  has  been  far  better  than  if  we  had  toiled  unaided  and  appreciated. 
Music,  talent,  and  genius  will  always  live ;  but  they  must  be  fed  and  cared  for,  and 
treated  with  consideration  and  sympathy. 

The  first  meeting  of  the  Dorchester  Symphony  Society  was  held  at  Winthrop  Hall, 
Saturday,  Nov.  6,  1897.  Among  those  present  were  Mr.  C.  F.  Kittredge,  Miss 
Emily  Robinson,  Miss  Myrick,  Miss  Isabelle  Robinson,  Dr.  J.  A.  Tanner,  and  Mr. 
George  Virtue.  A  board  of  management  was  chosen,  and  Mr.  Charles  McLaughlin 
was  elected  conductor.  Subscription  papers  were  circulated  in  the  many  districts  of 
Dorchester,  and  one  hundred  and  fifty  names  were  volunteered  without  hesitation. 

The  first  rehearsal  was  held  November  16.  A  set  of  purely  amateur  performers 
was  procured ;  and,  after  five  rehearsals,  the  first  concert  was  given.  The  program 
included  a  Haydn  symphony,  overture,  Son  the  Stranger,  of  Mendelssohn,  three  dances 
by  Edward  German,  a  piano  solo  by  Miss  Gertrude  Thayer,  and  a  violin  solo  by 
M.  Wier,  the  concertmaster. 

It  was  remarkable  how  successfully  Mr.  McLaughlin  commanded  his  young  volun- 
teers, and  what  good  results  he  secured  from  the  few  hours  that  had  been  earnestly  spent 
in  trying  to  bring  their  promising  talents  toward  the  unity  that  would  best  express  every 
phrase  and  meaning  of  the  wisely  chosen  music. 


The  Dorchester  Symphony 


49 


Four  concerts,  each  one  better  than  the  last,  were  given  the  first  season ;  and  by 
general  request  an  extra  concert  was  given  at  the  end,  which  was  enthusiastically 
received,  the  orchestra  playing  more  and  more  as  one  perfect  instrument.  The 
reputation  of  the  Symphony  began  to  spread  through  the  musical  world,  and  critics 
came  from  the  city  of  Gericke  to  hear  for  themselves.     Said  the  Boston   Transcript:  — 

"To  say  that  the  orchestra  has  improved  inadequately  expresses  the  rapid  progress 
the  active  members  have  made  under  their  leader,  Mr.  Charles  McLaughlin.  The 
Schubert  symphony  in  B  minor  was  a  surprise  to  all,  being  played  with  an  unusual 
breadth  of  expression,  and,  something  rare  in  amateur  orchestras,  in  almost  perfect 
harmony."     (April  6,  1898.) 

On  January  5,  with  many  improvements  and  an  enlarged  orchestra,  the  second 
season  was  opened  before  a  flattering  audience  of  interested  subscribers.  The  second 
concert  was  given  on  February  9,  with  Mr.  John  Turner  as  soloist.  At  the  third  concert 
of  the  season,  M.  Carl  Treiber,  the  first  'cellist,  and  one  of  the  best  amateurs  of  the  city, 
made  a  lasting  impression  with  his  solo  work  in  Volkmann's  Serenade.  The  fourth  and 
last  concert  was  perhaps  the  most  ambitious  effort  of  the  society, —  a  Mozart  symphony, 
(the  Jupiter),  the  ballet  music  from  Rosamunde  of  Schubert,  the  overture  to  Idmoneo, 
by  Mozart,  the  Handel  Largo  (with  solo  by  Mr.  Traupe),  and  one  or  two  smaller  numbers. 
If  Dorchester  was  not  pleased  and  proud  of  this  program  and  this  concert,  it  lacked 
musical  feeling  and  delicacy.  I  am  sure  it  must  have  congratulated  itself  for  being  the 
native  hearth  of  so  many  gifted  performers.  Mr.  McLaughlin  was  overjoyed  to  see  his 
dearest  hopes  approaching  fulfilment,  and  the  old  hall  shook  with  friendly  vibrations. 

It  is  not  always  a  satisfaction  to  share  the  experience  of  a  young  musical  organiza- 
tion, and  sometimes  there  is  a  feeling  of  duty  more  than  interest  or  pleasure  in  the 
service  we  are  doing  ;  but,  from  the  very  beginning,  the  members  of  the  Dorchester 
Symphony  Society  have  not  only  been  interested,  but  devotedly  enthusiastic  and  proud 
of  the  honor  of  being  connected  with  the  growing  success  of  this  brave  little  orchestra. 

CoLETTA  Ryan. 


THE  DORCHESTER  MEDICAL  CLUB. 


The  Dorchester  Medical  Club  came  into  existence 
on  the  25th  of  July,  1866,  at  the  call  of  Dr.  C.  Ellery 
Stedman,  to  consider  the  feasibility  of  establishing  and 
maintaining  a  medical  society  in  the  town  of  Dor- 
chester for  medical  improvement  and  social  enjoyment. 
There  assembled  Drs.  Edward  Jarvis,  E.  D.  Miller, 
Henry  Blanchard,  Benjamin  Gushing,  W.  C.  B.  Fifield, 
James  S.  Greene,  and  W.  S.  Everett.  Approvals  of  the 
enterprise  were  received  from  Drs.  J.  P.  Spooner,  Jona- 
than Ware,  and  C.  C.  Holmes.  These  men  were  the 
original  members  and  founders  of  the  club. 

Of  this  eleven,  three  are  still  living  and  practising 
medicine  to-day.     Eight  have  ceased  from  their  labors, 
and  have  gone  where  the  weary  rest,  after  serving  Dorchester  faithfully  and  well,  with 
skill  and  ability,  leaving  behind  them  memories  honored  and  beloved. 

Among  this  number  three  stand  forth  conspicuous  for  their  pronounced  individu- 
ality and  sterling  worth,  as  well  as  for  their  lives  of  earnest  and  untiring  devotion  to  the 
sick  and  needy. 

Dr.  Christopher  C.  Holmes  was  a  remarkable  practitioner  of  medicine,  wise  in 
counsel,  brilliant,  entertaining,  and  considered  one  of  the  shining  lights  of  the  club.  He 
was  for  many  years  the  Commander  of  the  Cadets. 

Dr.  William  C.  B.  Fifield  was  for  many  years  surgeon  to  the  Boston  City  Hospital, 
and  acquired  a  widely  extended  consultation  practice.  The  accuracy  of  his  memory  as  to 
what  he  had  read  and  seen  was  phenomenal.  He  gave  the  club  much  to  think  about,  and 
would  convulse  the  members  with  laughter  by  his  great  wit  and  humor. 

Dr.  Benjamin  Gushing  was  an  example  of  perfect  uprightness  of  life  and  character ; 
and  to  him,  as  some  one  has  said,  "the  younger  men  in  the  profession  owe  a  debt  of 
gratitude  that  can  only  be  repaid  by  imitating  the  example  he  set  them,  and  by  practising 
medicine  along  the  lines  of  high  and  ennobling  virtue  and  devotion  to  right  principles  that 
he  taught  in  all  his  counsels  and  illustrated  and  exemplified  in  his  life."  With  a  few 
words  he  carried  more  weight  than  any  other  member  of  the  club. 

As  these  men  formed  and  constituted  the  Dorchester  Medical  Club,  so  has  it  been 
perpetuated  and  carried  on  by  their  successors. 

Scientific  improvement  and  a  social  interchange  of  friendly  and  mutual  regard  have 
ever  marked  its  meetings.  The  influence  on  the  profession  throughout  the  community 
has  been  especially  felt  in  establishing  reciprocal  and  courteous  relations. 

The  club  is  composed  at  present  of  the  following  physicians  :  Drs.  C.  Ellery  Sted- 
man, James  S.  Greene,  Willard  S.  Everett  (the  three  original  members),  Robert  T.  Edes, 
Daniel  D.  Gilbert,  William  P.  Bolles,  Orville  F.  Rogers,  M.  Vassar  Pierce,  Samuel  Cro- 
well,  John  A.  Tanner,  David  G.  Eldridge,  Clarence  A.  Cheever,  Henry  V.  Reynolds,  and 
Henry  P.  Jaques,  honorary  member. 

Samuel  Crowell. 


s 


HWER  St 


-■Louer?^''         '\^^^   RlYEk  ST.  LOWER  /1ILL5 


Bl.ACKfAAN  HOUSt, 

rooD  on  WA^iMinOTOM  ixiv.i'y-  WANovfp. 


LANDMARKS. 


I^ORCHESTER  PLANTATION  is  one  of  the  oldest  settlements  in  the  Mas- 
•**y  sachusetts  Bay  Colony,  and  the  proud  position  it  has  maintained  is  owing 
y  largely  to  the  sturdy  character  of  its  founders.  Plymouth,  as  we  all  know, 
was  the  first  of  the  New  England  settlements ;  and  Cape  Ann,  with  Roger 
Conant  and  his  followers,  was  the  second.  When  Conant  and  his  men  abandoned  their 
enterprise,  they  went  to  Naumkeag,  and  founded  Salem.  From  Salem,  Charlestown  was 
settled ;  but  the  scarcity  of  water  there,  and  the  representation  of  William  Blaxton  of  the 
advantages  of  Shawmut,  where  countless  springs  abounded,  caused  a  diversion  in  favor  of 
Boston.  On  September  7  (O.  S.),  at  the  second  General  Court  of  the  Colony  at  Charles- 
town, 

"  It  was  Ordered,  That  Trimountain  be  called  Boston  ;  Mattapan,  Dorchester ;  and 
the  town  upon  Charles  River,  Watertown."  This  was  the  official  incorporation  of 
the  town. 

The  main  settlement  was  about  "  Allen's  Plain,"  and  close  by  the  first  meeting-house 
and  the  first  school-house  were  built. 

Rock  Hill,  the  Old  Hill,  now  Savin  Hill,  was  selected  as  a  point  of  vantage,  on  the 
crest  of  which  a  fort  was  erected  and  "great  guns"  mounted  for  purposes  of  defence. 
Around  the  hill  Roger  Ludlow,  John  Eeles,  Richard  Baker,  Captain  John  Mason,  Richard 
Leeds,  Edward  Bullock,  and  others  built  their  homes.  Fox  Point  received  its  name  at  a 
very  early  period. 

On  the  slope  of  the  hill  is  a  cellar 
hole  where  one  of  the  first  houses  stood. 
Off  Savin  Hill  Avenue,  near  the  stone 
quarry,  is  the  "  old  Barrack "  so  long 
occupied  by  the  Revolutionary  soldiers. 

Richard  Baker's  house  stood  where 
the  Tuttlc  house  now  stands,  and  the 
great  tree  in  front  is  said  to  have  grown 
from  a  switch  planted  many  years  ago 
by  Lois  Wiswell. 

Jones's  Hill,  so  named  from  Thomas 
Jones,  one  of  the  first  settlers,  lies  be- 
tween Pleasant,  Stoughton,  Freeport, 
and  Hancock  Streets.  John  Wiswell, 
John  Moseley,  and  Preserved  Capen  were 
also  among  those  who  built  their  homes 
on  the  hill. 

Colonel  Israel  Stoughton  owned  a 
vast  estate  which  extended  along  Pleas- 
ant Street  to  Savin  Hill  Avenue._^The 


52  The  Dorchester  Book 

homestead  descended  to  his  son  William,  afterward  lieutenant  governor,  and  at  his 
death  to  his  nephew  Colonel  William  Tailer,  afterward  lieutenant  governor,  who  built  a 
wall  about  the  estate  from  brick  brought  from  the  castle. 

The  house  was  destroyed  during  the  last  century,  and  the  estate  is  now  covered  by 
numerous  dwellings. 

John  Holland  settled  at  Captain's  Point,  afterward  Preston's,  now  Commercial  Point. 
In  1635  he  was  authorized  by  the  General  Court  to  establish  a  ferry  between  Captain's 
Point  and  Newberry's  (Billing's)  Creek.  The  distance  was  so  great  that  it  proved  unprofit- 
able, and  was  abandoned.  Robert  Pierce  and  George  Minot  settled  in  the  Neponset 
section.  Richard  Collicott  settled  on  Adams  Street  near  Centre,  beyond  the  Milton  hill. 
This  house  was  so  far  away  that  it  was  made  a  "garrison" 

Bark  Warwick  Cove  lies  between  Freeport  and  Preston  Streets.  The  vessel  was 
condemned  in  1636,  and  was  drawn  up  in  the  cove  to  await  orders  for  repairs.  The 
owners  left  her  there.  The  upper  works  gradually  rotted  and  crumbled  away,  while  the 
hull  settled  down  in  the  mud,  and  has  not  been  seen  for  many  years. 

When  the  cellar  for  Roger  Ludlow's  house  was  being  dug,  some  pieces  of  French 
money  were  unearthed,  bearing  date  of  the  previous  century,  showing  that  the  settlers 
were  not  the  first  white  men  to  visit  these  shores. 

David  Thompson  had  settled  on  this  island  which  bears  his  name,  and  which  had  pre- 
viously been  owned  by  William  Trevour. 

Squantum  from  an  early  period  had  been  a  most  important  trading-place  of  the 
Indians.  The  Massachusetts  Fields  south  of  the  Neponset  had  been  the  planting  ground 
of  the  tribe.  Here  every  spring  they  sowed  their  corn,  fished  in  the  bay,  subsisting  on 
the  food  they  drew  from  the  sea.  When  the  Indian  summer  came,  they  gathered  the  corn, 
cured  their  fish,  laying  in  stores  tor  the  winter  encampments  in  the  forests  along  the  Blue 
Hill  range. 

Chickatawbut,  the  Neponset  chief,  proved  a  friendly  ally.  His  son  Josias  was  a  strong 
friend  of  the  colonists. 

The  Indians  disappeared  long  ago,  but  countless  relics  have  been  dug  up  at  Squantum 
and  at  Mennen's  moon  (Moon  Island). 

The  first  houses  built  by  the  settlers  were  rude  cabins  that  long  since  have  passed 
away.  Of  the  colonial  homesteads  a  few  remain.  Among  the  oldest  is  the  house  of 
Barnard  Capen,  which  was  erected  some  time  prior  to  1637.  It  stands  on  the  upper  road 
(now  Washington  Street),  opposite  Melville  Avenue.  It  is  but  slightly  altered,  and  is 
in  a  splendid  state  of  preservation.  The  home  of  Captain  Roger  Clap  still  stands  in 
Willow  Court,  off  Boston  Street.  It  was  enlarged  by  Captain  Lemuel  Clap  in  1767. 
Willow  Court  took  its  name  from  the  massive  willow-trees  that  lined  the  roadway  to  the 
house ;  but  they  have  been  destroyed  in  the  march  of  progress,  and  only  decayed  stumps 
remain. 

The  Humphreys  house  stands  on  the  corner  of  Dudley  and  Humphreys  Streets. 
The  estate  has  been  in  possession  of  the  family  since  1634.  Though  the  house  has  been 
greatly  enlarged  and  improved,  a  part  of  the  first  building  is  said  to  be  enclosed  within 
its  walls.  This  house  is  one  of  the  best  known  in  the  town,  and  is  in  a  fine  state 
of  preservation,  and  is  still  occupied  by  one  of  the  Humphreys. 

The  Blake  house,  built  previous  to  1650  by  Elder  James  Blake,  has  been  removed 
from  its  original  site  on  East  Cottage  Street,  and  now  stands  in  one  corner  of  Richard- 
son Park,  and  is  the  home  of  the  Dorchester  Historical  Society. 


y. 


."^ 


-^«( 


Landmarks  5;^ 

Another  of  the  old  landmarks  is  the  home  of  Robert  Pierce,  now  standing  on  Oak 
Avenue,  just  off  Adams  Street,  on  the  lower  road.  It  was  probably  erected  previous  to 
1640,  the  central  portion  being  the  oldest.  The  earliest  addition  was  on  the  west  side, 
the  last  on  the  east.  It  has  always  been  owned  and  occupied  by  his  descendants,  and 
to-day  it  still  remains  the  old  Pierce  homestead.  Robert  Pierce  held  grants  of  land 
at  Pine  Neck  and  in  the  "Great  Lots,"  and  it  is  supposed  that  he  previously  built  a  cabin 
at  Pine  Neck  which  he  occupied  for  a  few  years.  The  site  of  the  house  was  well  known, 
as  the  cellar  was  visible  for  many  years  ;  and  the  old  well  still  remains.  It  is  near  the 
Neponset  railroad  station,  in  what  is  now  known  as  Port  Norfolk.  His  nearest  neighbor 
on  the  hill  was  George  Minot,  who  built  his  house  on  adjoining  land. 

The  exact  date  of  the  erection  of  the  Minot  House  is  not  known,  but  it  is  certain  that 
it  was  among  the  oldest  in  the  town.  Josselyn,  writing  in  1663,  mentioned  it  among 
others;  and  the  Minot  family  place  the  date  about  1640.  The  house  was  situated  on 
Chickatawbut  Street,  and  was  built  by  George  Minot,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  the  town, 
a  deputy  to  the  General  Court  of  the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Pay  and  a  ruling  elder  of 
the  church  for  many  years.  The  land  which  has  been  known  as  Squantum  was  also  a 
portion  of  his  estate. 

The  Minot  house  was  typical  of  the  constniction  of  those  early  days,  a  wooden  build- 
ing, with  its  frame  solidly  filled  with  bricks  that  were  brought  from  England.  At  the  east 
end  of  the  house  the  third  story  overhung  the  others,  and  was  probably  so  built  as  a 
means  of  defence  in  case  of  an  attack  by  the  Indians.  So  solidly  was  this  house  built 
that  it  withstood  the  effects  of  time,  yielding  only  to  the  flames  which  destroyed  it  in 
November,  1874. 

This  property  has  always  been  owned  by  the  Minot  family,  having  been  handed  down 
through  the  eldest  surviving  son  in  each  generation  from  George  Minot  to  the  present 
owner,  Charles  Henry  Minot. 

George  Minot  was  a  contemporary  of  Elder  Humphreys,  and  it  is  said  that  the  fol- 
lowing lines  were  to  be  seen  in  the  Old  Burying  Ground  :  — 

"  Here  lies  the  bodies  of  Unite  Humphreys  and  Shining  Minot. 
Such  names  as  these  they  never  die  not." 

The  Bridgham  house,  which  was  built  some  time  previous  to  1640,  stood  on  Cottage 
Street,  near  Humphreys  and  Franklin  Streets.     It  was  destroyed  in  1873. 

Of  the  Provincial  houses  the  Taylor  house,  where  Perez  Morton  lived,  stood  on 
Dudley  Street,  opposite  Howard  Avenue.  It  was  one  of  the  elegant  mansions  of  Dor- 
chester, in  the  midst  of  spacious  grounds  in  which  had  grown  lofty  elms.  As  the  home 
of  the  attorney-general,  it  was  the  scene  of  many  brilliant  gatherings. 

The  Everett  house  was  built  about  1770  by  Robert  Oliver.  The  Rev.  Oliver  Everett 
resided  in  this  house  in  1782;  and  in  1794  Edward  Everett,  his  son,  Dorchester's  most 
brilliant  orator,  was  born.     This  house  has  recently  been  destroyed. 

The  Welles  house  was  occupied  in  1784  by  General  Henry  Knox,  and  afterward  by 
Daniel  Webster.  The  Henry  L.  Pierce  School  stands  on  its  site.  Directly  opposite  was 
the  home  of  Major  Withington.     This  house  was  torn  down  in  1870. 

The  Swan  mansion  was  on  Dudley  Street,  and  was  built  over  one  hundred  years  ago. 
Colonel  James  Swan  was  an  active  patriot  in  the  Revolution,  and  afterward  Adjutant- 
General  of  the  State.     He  journeyed  to  France  some  years  after  the  close  of  the  war. 


54  The  Dorchester  Book 

embarking  in  numerous  enterprises,  in  which  he  accumulated  a  fortune.  In  1808  he  was 
involved  in  a  law-suit;  and,  judgment  being  found  against  him,  he  was  imprisoned 
twenty-two  years.  He  resisted  the  claim  because  he  considered  it  unjust,  though  he 
could  have  paid  it  at  any  time ;  but  he  would  not  deviate  from  his  fixed  principles.  He 
lived  but  a  short  time  after  his  release. 

This  was  another  mansion  house  in  which  hospitality  was  dispensed  with  a  lavish 
hand.  Colonel  Swan  was  in  Paris  during  the  French  Revolution,  and  secured  many 
articles  of  furniture,  draperies,  paintings,  and  fixtures  from  the  palaces,  which  afterward 
adorned  his  home.  The  house  had  a  "  Marie  Antoinette  Room  "  ;  and,  like  the  Deacon 
House  of  Boston,  which  had  a  similar  room,  it  brought  ill-fortune  to  the  owner. 

The  Walter  Baker  mansion  on  Washington  Street,  at  the  corner  of  Park,  was  built 
about  1750.  It  was  first  occupied  by  Lieutenant  Governor  Oliver.  Colonel  Benjamin 
Hichborn  bought  the  house  after  the  Revolution,  and  occupied  it  until  he  died,  in  1817. 
In  it  he  entertained  some  of  the  leading  men  of  the  country.  It  became  the  property  of 
Mr.  James  Penniman,  and  from  him  Walter  Baker  purchased  the  house.  It  was  occupied 
as  a  residence  by  his  family  until  1891.     The  house  is  now  unoccupied. 

The  home  of  John  Dolbear  still  stands  on  Washington  Street,  south  of  the  car  sta- 
tion.    It  was  built  by  Isaac  Royall,  Sr.,  early  in  the  last  century. 

The  Governor  Gardner  house  stood  on  Pleasant  Street,  on  the  easterly  slope  of 
Jones's  Hill,  and  was  built  sometime  prior  to  the  Revolution.  It  was  a  near  neighbor  of 
the  Appleton  house,  which  still  stands  on  Pleasant  Street. 

It  will  be  impossible  in  this  article  to  speak  of  all  the  old  houses  now  standing.  But 
among  them  are  the  George  Pierce  house  on  Adams  Street,  opposite  Minot ;  the  S.  S. 
Pierce  house  on  Marsh  Street  ;  the  Bicknell  house  on  Minot  Street,  which  formerly 
stood  on  the  upper  road  and  is  only  a  part  of  the  original  structure ;  and  the  Pope  house 
on  Adams  Street,  near  Codman.  The  Codman  house  stands  on  Codman  Hill,  off  Wash- 
ington Street.  The  Ball  Hughes  house  is  at  the  corner  of  Washington  and  School  Streets. 
At  the  Lower  Mills  are  the  Tolman,  Tileston,  Frost,  Crehore,  Bispham,  Badlam  houses, 
Brewer's  store,  and  other  houses  near  by. 

The  Blackman  house  stood  on  Washington  Street,  near  Harvard,  and  was  destroyed 
many  years  ago.  On  Bowdoin  Street  a  part  of  the  old  house  which  stood  on  the  Gov- 
ernor Bowdoin  estate  —  removed  a  short  distance  from  its  original  site  —  still  stands. 
The  Davenport  house  and  the  Topliff  house  are  on  the  same  street ;  and  where  the  Paro- 
chial School  now  stands  was  the  home  of  Judge  Cummins,  a  quaint  picture  of  which  is 
seen  in  the  illustrations.  The  Bird  house  is  on  Columbia  Road,  near  the  burying-ground  ; 
and  several  of  the  homes  of  the  Clap  family  are  on  Boston  Street. 

Mattapannock,  or  Dorchester  Neck  (now  South  Boston),  is  the  historic  portion  of  the 
old  town.  When  the  Revolution  broke  out,  ten  or  more  families  resided  there,  who  left 
their  homes  when  the  siege  of  Boston  was  fairly  on.  In  the  winter  of  1776  the  town  of 
Boston  was  surrounded  by  a  cordon  of  forts,  extending  from  Winter  Hill  to  Dorchester. 
The  final  struggle  was  near  at  hand  when  the  British  held  the  town  and  castle  with  bat- 
teries at  the  Green  Store,  near  Dover  and  Washington  Streets,  and  another  battery 
between  Dedham  and  Canton  Streets.  Early  in  February  General  Howe  gathered 
information  which  led  him  to  believe  that  the  Americans  were  about  to  fortify  Foster's, 
or  Nook's,  Hill.  In  the  early  morning  of  February  14  an  attack  was  ordered.  A  detach- 
ment was  to  move  from  the  Green  Store  battery  —  with  another  from  the  castle  to  drive 


yj^-      ](^U^JjOVJL|[      ^yi^C^.-'-Jjl^aE^^ 


^ 

^ 


4PK.^jj}uab  ^) 


i^alV  ^i^rA\lnoT  hou/E-lffl 


Landmarks 


55 


in  the  guard  —  to  destroy  every  house  and  building  and  all  material  for  defensive  purposes 
that  could  be  found.  They  crossed  on  the  ice,  captured  six  of  the  guard  with  a  non- 
combatant,  and  destroyed  six  dwelling-houses  and  nine  barns.  The  main  body  of  the 
guard  retired  to  their  encampment  near  Savin  Hill,  while  the  regulars  returned  to  the 
castle. 

Of  the  houses  destroyed  by  the  British,  the  finest  was  the  home  of  Captain  James 
Foster,  which  was  occupied  by  his  widow  Marj'  and  her  children.  It  stood  on  the  lot  on 
E  Street  (near  Fourth),  where  the  Congregational  church  (now  Grand  Army  Hall)  stands. 
This  was  the  first  house  built  on  the  Neck.  It  was  erected  in  1673-74  by  James  Foster, 
the  eldest  son  of  Captain  Hopestill  Foster. 

The  next  house  was  that  of  Oliver  Wiswall,  which  stood  on  the  site  of  the  Bird 
School-house.  Another,  occupied  by  Hopestill  Withington,  stood  on  Sixth  Street,  be- 
tween I  and  K.  The  widow  Ruth  Bird  occupied  a  house  on  G  Street,  near  Fifth.  James 
Blake  occupied  the  second  house,  built  in  168 1,  and  his  brother  Samuel  another.  Both 
houses  stood  near  what  is  now  Broadway  and  P  Street. 

In  the  list  of  houses  is  a  house,  barn,  and  stable  of  Francis  Bernard,  the  location  of 
which  is  unknown.  For  these  facts  in  relation  to  these  houses  we  are  indebted  to  the 
researches  of  Francis  E.  Blake,  Esq. 

The  Old  Harbor  is  being  improved  by  the  construction  of  the  Strandway. 

The  Town  Landing,  so  called,  was  east  of  Dorchester  Avenue,  opposite  Creek  Street. 
The  way  can  be  traced  in  part,  though  it  has  been  built  on  to  some  extent  and  the  con- 
struction of  the  railroad  and  the  improved  sewerage  mains  have  destroyed  the  greater 
part  of  the  old  creek. 

Bray  Wilkins  established  a  ferry  between  Davenport's  Creek  on  the  Neponset  side 

to  the  ridge  at  Sling  Point.     The  way  to  the  ferry  (Marsh  Street),  one  of   the  oldest 

streets  of  the  town,  is  now  but  little  used.     The  landing  place  is  not  easily  accessible, 

but  traces  of  the  landing  and  ferry  way  are  yet  visible. 

Edward  W.  McGlenen. 


-■^'5<Ste-S» 


T^TT&j^^ 


"^■ii^*!^   -"^    , 


i^      (1 , 


'-"'  X 


INSTITUTIONS. 

HERE  are  within  the  limits  of  Dorchester  more  institutions  for  the  adminis- 
tration of  wise  benevolence  than  can  be  described  in  this  brief  article.  When 
one  looks  through  a  list  of  the  charitable  and  beneficent  institutions  of 
Boston,  he  is  amazed  at  their  number  and  variety.  Of  these  Dorchester  has 
its  full  share. 

No  one  knows  better  than  the  experienced  worker  among  the  poor  how  valuable  is 
the  "ounce  of  prevention"  administered  to  boys  and  girls  in  the  form  of  industrial 
training. 

The  Industrial  School  for  Girls,  founded  in  1853,  is  on  Centre  Street.  Girls  from  ten 
to  fifteen  years  old  are  received  here,  and  trained  to  good  conduct  and  habits  of  self-sup- 
port. Parents  or  guardians  must  put  them  under  the  entire  control  of  the  managers  for  a 
fixed  time.  On  leaving  the  school  for  service,  the  girls  are  generally  placed  in  country 
families,  where  they  may  still  be  controlled  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  managers.  Those 
who  are  received  by  the  school  generally  come  from  homes  which  have  been  broken  up 
by  the  death  of  one  or  both  the  parents,  or  by  desertion,  or  rendered  unfit  by  drink  or 
crime.  The  girls  attend  public  school,  and  are  besides  thoroughly  trained  in  housework, 
sewing,  etc.  Some  of  these  girls,  and  not  always  the  most  tractable,  turn  out  to  be  very 
competent  and  attractive  women. 

The  Liversidge  Institution  of  Industry  is  for  boys  only,  and  they  must  be  natives  of 
England  or  New  England. 

This  institution  is  beautifully  located  on  River  Street,  about  half-way  between  Dor- 
chester Lower  Mills  and  Mattapan.  It  receives  and  trains  poor  and  neglected  boys  from 
seven  to  fourteen  years  old.  The  founder  of  this  wise  charity  was  born  in  England,  but 
spent  nearly  the  whole  of  his  life  in  Dorchester. 

Gordon  House,  at  Field's  Corner,  has  been  doing  brave  and  helpful  work  among  the 
children  of  both  sexes  for  more  than  twelve  years.  It  maintains  classes  in  dressmaking, 
sewing,  cane-seating,  cobbling,  singing,  knitting,  cooking,  housekeeping,  and  drawing.  It 
has  a  station  of  the  stamp-saving  society.  It  has  several  clubs,  and  it  also  furnishes  some 
lectures  and  entertainments  for  adults.  As  a  civilizing  agency,  its  influence  has  been 
marked. 

One  of  the  institutions  which  especially  touched  the  heart  of  Phillips  Brooks  and  en- 
listed his  active  support  is  the  Home  for  Incurables  on  Dorchester  Avenue,  between  Ash- 
mont  and  the  Lower  Mills. 

Men,  women,  and  children  who  are  afflicted  with  any  incurable  disease,  except  cancer, 
consumption,  epilepsy,  mental  disorder,  or  contagious  diseases,  are  received  here  and 
tenderly  cared  for.  It  is  a  genuine  "  home,"  in  the  best  sense  of  the  word  ;  and  one  may 
see  there,  along  with  much  suffering  heroically  borne,  abundance  of  cheerfulness,  often 
bubbling  up  into  fun  and  laughter. 

Institutions  worthy  of  all  praise  are  the  Free  Home  for  Consumptives  on  Quincy 
Street  and  the  St.  Mary's  Infant  Asylum  and  Lying-in  Hospital  on  Gushing  Avenue. 
Both  are  under  Catholic  control,  but  patients  of  all  religious  faiths  are  received. 

The  Convalescent  Home  on  Dorchester  Avenue  is  a  branch  of  the  Boston  City  Hos- 
pital, where  women,  girls,  and  young  boys  are  received  when  recovering  from  acute  diseases. 


I 


■.fy~^r" 


^^^^.^^  ^'"^e:- 


■^'?5  '-«5^^7^^ 


S    B 


ft 


'irTivis  Wur^i 


DORCHESTER  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 

HE  inception  of  the  Dorchester  Historical  Society  is  due  to  Mr.  James  H. 
Stark  and  the   distinguished  antiquarian,   Mr.  William   H.  Whitmore,    the 


granted  by  the  legislature  in  the  year  1891,  for  the  purpose  of  collecting, 
preserving,  and  publishing  information  in  regard  to  the  history  of  that  portion  of  the 
city  of  Boston  which  formerly  constituted  the  town  of  Dorchester. 

The  society  was  organized  at  a  meeting  called  by  a  majority  of  the  applicants  for 
the  act  of  incorporation,  in  Blake  Hall,  Field's  Corner,  Dorchester,  on  the  loth  of  April, 

1893- 

At  a  regular  meeting.  May  i,  1893,  a  code  of  by-laws  was  adopted,  and  the  society 

was  fully  organized  by  the  choice  of   William    H.    Whitmore  as   president,   Willis   B. 

Mendum  as  secretary,    John  J.   May,  James   H.   Stark,    Elbridge   Smith,   Thomas  W. 

Bicknell,  Herbert  M.  Manks,  D.  Chauncey  Brewer,  directors. 

It  was  voted  at  the  meeting  that  women  should  be  admitted  to  membership  upon 
the  same  terms  as  men. 

April  II,  1894,  the  society  celebrated  the  one  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birthday 
of  Edward  Everett  by  a  public  meeting  in  Winthrop  Hall.  There  was  an  oration  by 
Dr.  James  De  Normandie,  followed  by  remarks  from  James  H.  Stark,  Rev.  W.  E.  C. 
Smith,  and  others.  The  details  of  the  celebration  were  published  by  the  city  in  a  hand- 
some volume  for  distribution  among  those  interested. 

Oct.  25,  189s,  efforts  which  the  society  had  been  making  for  some  time  previous 
for  the  preservation  of  the  "old  Blake  house,"  built  in  1650,  were  successful. 

When  it  came  into  the  hands  of  the  Dorchester  Historical  Society,  it  stood  upon  land 
just  purchased  by  the  city  adjoining  the  municipal  conservatory,  and  would  have  been 
torn  down  but  for  our  interposition.  Dr.  Clarence  J.  Blake,  the  distinguished  aurist,  as 
descendant  in  the  ninth  generation  of  the  original  owner  of  the  structure,  with  his  father, 
the  late  John  H.  Blake,  and  other  relatives,  pledged  themselves  to  contribute  upward  of 
twelve  hundred  dollars,  when  the  work  of  removal  to  its  present  site  should  be  undertaken. 
Further  liberal  contributions  from  public-spirited  friends  of  the  society  were  pledged. 

The  work  of  removal  and  restoration  was  immediately  undertaken,  and  carried  to 
completion  under  the  direction  of  Mr.  Charles  Hodgdon,  architect,  and  by  the  following 
spring  the  work  was  finished  and  the  house  occupied  by  the  society.  The  house  is  in 
charge  of  a  custodian,  and  is  open  to  the  public  every  Monday  afternoon. 

The  present  board  of  officers  is  as  follows:  president,  John  J.  May;  secretary  and 
treasurer,  Charles  Hodgdon  ;  directors,  John  J.  May,  James  H.  Stark,  George  C.  Burgess, 
Edwin  T.  Home,  D.  Chauncey  Brewer,  Colonel  Henry  W.  Wilson.  The  society  has  had 
many  exceedingly  interesting  papers  prepared  and  read  by  its  members,  some  of  deep 
research. 

The  late  Willis  B.  Mendum  established  the  fact  that  the  first  town  meeting  was  held 
in  Dorchester,  and  the  first  free  school  supported  by  public  taxation  was  established  here. 


58  The  Dorchester  Book 

The  society,  through  one  of  its  members,  the  distinguished  engineer.  Colonel  Henry 
W.  Wilson,  is  at  work  on  a  map  of  ancient  Dorchester,  showing  the  original  grantees, — 
a  work  which  will  be  of  rare  value  to  antiquarians  and  all  persons  interested  in  genealogy. 

It  will  thus  be  seen  the  Dorchester  Historical  Society  is  a  vital  force  in  the  com- 
munity, and  affords  a  practical  opportunity  for  those  who  desire  to  promote  an  historical 

interest  in  the  very  sources  of  our  country's  life. 

Charles  Hodgdon. 


■J 

an  uijai.^^ 


V  Jl 


llj.lj^J 


iJ^^ 


^>l 


r:r:_  _(i 


i  13.11 


HISTORICAL  SKETCH  OF  DORCHESTER  SEAL. 


N  the  "Town  Records"  there  appears  a  report  of  the  committee  chosen  by  the 
town  in  April,  1865,  "to  procure  a  seal  suitable  as  a  corporate  seal  of  the  town 
of  Dorchester."  From  this  report  a  thorough  interpretation  of  the  shield  may 
be  derived :  — 

The  early  settlers  of  Dorchester  organized  themselves  as  a  church  at  the  New  Hospi- 
tal in  Plymouth,  England,  in  March  of  1630,  prior  to  their  embarkation  for  this  country, 
which  act  was  pre-eminently  the  corner-stone  of  the  foundation  of  this  town,  although  they 
did  not  arrive  here  until  early  in  June  of  that  year. 

This  fact  is  expressed  upon  the  shield  by  the  rude  thatch-roofed  church  which  appears, 
without  a  chimney,  in  the  dexter  base  of  the  escutcheon. 

The  free  school,  the  system  of  which  has  been  exerting  a  beneficial  influence  over  the 
whole  country,  was  established  in  this  town  in  1639,  and  is  said  to  be  the  very  first  free 
school  in  the  world.  The  foundation  of  this  institution  is  recognized  on  the  shield  by  the 
humble,  thatched-roof  building  in  the  lower  part  of  the  shield  a  little  in  the  rear  of  the 
church. 

With  the  liberty,  and  by  grant  of  land  and  timber  by  the  town  in  1633,  Israel  Stough- 
ton  was  induced  to  build  a  corn-mill  upon  Neponset  River,  which  was  the  first  water  mill 
in  the  colony,  if  not  in  the  country.  This  fact  is  symbolically  noted  by  the  rude  mill,  with 
its  large  wheel,  which  is  seen  upon  the  left  bank  of  Nepon- 
set River,  the  course  of  which  river,  from  its  source  to  its 
mouth,  lay  through  the  ancient  territory  of  Dorchester. 

"  In  the  background  will  be  recognized  the  Blue  Hills, 
which  served  as  a  landmark  to  pilot  the  early  settlers 
to  the  mouth  of  Charles  River,  and  from  behind  which 
the  rising  sun  is  shining  upon  a  colony  who  left  their 
homes  in  the  mother  country,  not  as  adventurers  in 
search  of  gold,  as  exiles,  or  for  conquest,  but  for  the  more 
precious  boon  of  religious  liberty.  The  triple-towered 
castle  surmounting  the  shield  is  adopted  in  respectful 
memory  of  Dorchester  in  old  England,  of  whose  seal  this 
is  the  principal  charge  (in  commemoration  of  that  borough  having  been  formerly  a 
Roman  fortress),  and  from  which  place  the  infant  colony  derived  much  of  its  strength, 
both  physically  and  spiritually.  The  motto  upon  the  ribbon,  '  Pietate,  Literis,  Industria,' 
signifies  that  piety,  learning,  and  industry  were  the  prominent  virtues  which  the  early 
settlers  coveted,  and  which  their  descendants  unanimously  accord  to  them." 


EDITORIAL. 

/^UR  pleasant  task  is  finished.  Here  we  rest,  and  return  thanks.  To  the  contributors  whose 
names  appear  with  these  articles ;  to  members  of  the  Local  History  Class  of  the  Dorcheste. 
Woman's  Club,  and  especially  to  Mrs.  Eleanor  Hoskins  Waitt,  for  valuable  material  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  editor ;  to  William  B.  Trask,  J.  Grafton  Minot,  H.  W.  Warren,  E.  A.  Huebener, 
Miss  C.  F.  Jacobs,  W.  B.  Everett,  Walter  Cutter,  and  Parker  B.  Field,  for  the  loan  of  many  inter- 
esting photographs  and  paintings  here  reproduced ;  to  Miss  May  Caldwell,  for  many  charming 
sketches ;  to  Edward  W.  McGlenen,  McHenry  Robinson,  Edgar  I.  Evans,  and  George  A.  Clough, 
for  faithful  service  with  the  camera  in  behalf  of  this  book ;  to  all  the  good  friends  who  have 
advertised  in  these  pages  ;  and  last,  but  not  least  heartily,  to  Mrs.  Mary  C.  C.  Robinson,  without 
whose  invincible  industry,  energy,  and  courage  this  book  would  not  have  been, —  to  all  these 
and  many  others  who  have  helped, — the  Women's  Alliance  of  Christ  Church  offers  heartfelt 
thanks. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Dorchester  Samngs   Bank, 

No.  586  Columbia  Road,  Upham's  Corner,   Dorchester,  Mass. 


President, 
Frederick   L.    Walker. 


Benj.  B.  Whittzmoiie. 
FacDERicK  L.  Walker. 
Hknrv  G.  Allbright. 
Albert  H.  Stearns. 
Geo.  L.  Burt. 


Vice-Presidents, 
Benj.  B.  Whitte.more. 

W.     W.     WHIT.MARSH. 

BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES. 
W.  W.  Whitmarsh. 
John  E.  Tuttle. 
Lawrence  J.  Logan. 
Henry  S.  MacPherson. 
Daniel  Loverinc,  Jr. 
George  T.  Sears. 


Treasurer, 
Geo.  T.  Sears. 


C.  J.    McCoRMlCK. 

George  E.  Frost. 
Edwin  S.  Woodbury. 
Charles  F.  Conn. 
George  B.  Fhippen. 


All  money    deposited   on   or  before  second  Wednesday   of  January,   April,  July,   and   October   will  go  on 
interest  at  those  dates.     Dividends  payable  second  Wednesday  of  April  and  October. 

Bank  oi'F.v  from  z  p.m.  to  7  p..m.  daily.      Saturdays,  2  p.m.  to  9  p.m. 


A.    Rich.  S.    P.    .Matthews. 

RICH  &  MATTHEWS, 

dealers  in  all  kinds  of 

Fresh    and    Smoked    Fish,    Lobsters, 
Clams,  Cod  Liver  Oil,  etc. 

I  I  3  and  1  1  7  Fa.vel'il  Hall  Market,  Boston,  Mass. 
Established   15   Years. 

FRED   C.  GREENE, 

Registered 
Pharmacist, 

357   Adams  Street,    Dorchester,   Mass. 


FRANK  A.  FOSTER, 

CIVIL  ENGINEER,  SURVEYOR, 
AND   CONTRACTOR, 

34  School  Street,  Roo.m   43, 
Boston. 
Tel.,   Boston  and   Dorchester. 


RESERVED 


acofcaterer.x 


440   DORCHESTER  AV 
FIELD'S  CORNER 


)peciil  Attention, 
to  PaTtie5,Weddings,etc 


The  Dorchester  Book 


J.    H.  Record, 


J.   THORNDIKE. 


H.    T.   GERRISH. 


MANUFACTURER    OF 


Collars, 
Express  and 
Heavy 

Harness^ 


AND     DEALER     IN 


Blankets^   Robcs^ 

IVhips^   etc. 

REPAIRING 
of  all   kinds. 

1343  Dorchester  Ave.,  Dorchester,  Mass. 

Hunts 
Market. 

^433   Do ?-c/i ester  Ave.^ 
Field' s  Corner. 

I  sell  First-class   Goods  at  reason- 
able prices. 

Goods    delivered   in    any   part    of 
Dorchester  Free  of  Charge. 

Jf^illiam  Htmt^  Proprietor. 


Thorndike  &  Gerrish, 


Wholesale  Dealers  in 
Brighton  Dressed 


Mutton, 
Lamb, 

and  Veal, 

AND   .... 

Native  and 
Western  Poultry. 


62   North   Market  Street, 
Boston. 


TELEPHONE,     1 623    HAYMARKET. 


Connolly  &  Davis, 

Reliable   Prescription 
Druggists. 

The  best  goods  obtainable  at  reasonable 
prices. 

Competent  men  in  attendance. 

Tour  Patronage  Solicited. 

N.B. — We  have  removed  from  our  location  in 
the  Field  Building  to  our  new  store  in  the  Post-office 
Block,  corner  of  Fenno  Place. 

3    STORES.  3    STORES. 

AsHMONT.         Field's  Corner.         Neponset. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


RKSKRVKD 


N.    T.    ROBINSON, 
HAY,  GRAIN  &  STRAW. 

ALL    KINPS    or 

Feed  for  Horses  and  Cattle. 
Poultry  Feed^  Mineral  Salt. 

Glover's  Corner, 

Dorchester.  coNNrrrrn  by  TtLtPHONi. 

Lincoln  Stables, 

p.  McMORROW,   Proprietor. 
258  Adams  Street,  .-.  Dorchester  District. 

HACK,     BOARDING, 
AND    LIVERY.    ::    :: 

HORSES  FOR  SALF.  Telephone  ;? 29- 2. 


Dorchester   Fish   Market. 

Depot  for  all  kinds  of 

OCEAN,  LAKE,  RIVER 

FISH. 

FANCY  FISH  A  SPECIALTY. 

Oysters   and    Clams,    Fresh    Country    Eggs,    Canned 
Goods,  Vegetables,  and  Fruit. 

ORDERS    CALLED    FOR    AND    GOODS    DELIVERED    PROMPTLY. 

J.  J.   MAYO,   Proprietor, 
653   Washington   Street,      :      :      :      :      Dorchester. 


RESERVED 


r.  F.  MJGUIRE, 


DEALER    IN 


Choice  Beefy  Mutton^ 
Lamby    J^ealy    Pork, 

Hams,  Bacon,  Corned  Beef,  Tongues,  etc. 

PoiLTRV  AND   GaME  IN   SeaSON. 

Goods    Promptly   Delivered. 
1275   DORCHESTER   WF. 


J.    C.    NICHOLS. 


C.    M.    NICHOLS. 


H  A  R  r , 
DRUGGIST  AND  APOTHECARY. 

Dorchester  Ave.  and  Freeport  Street. 

Glover's  Corner, 
Dorchester,   Mass, 


The  Hoyt  Company, 

Hardware,  Wall   Paper,   i\iint, 
CUTLKR1\ 

347   Broadway,  South   Boston. 
1246  to  I25()  Dorchester   .•\\c.,  Durche.-^ier. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


John  H.  McCarthy, 

Commission  Dealer  in 

BEEF, 
MUTTON, 
LAMB,  AND 
VEAL, 

12   Clinton  Street,  .   .   .   Boston. 


LEO  TOM, 

Chinese  Laundry^ 

349  Adams  Street,  Dorchester. 

Work  will  be  called  for  and  delivered,  if  so  desired. 


Compliments  of 

Dr.   F.  M.  SALLES. 


Telephone,  Haymarket  358. 

H.  &  R.  ATWOOD, 

Planters  and  Wholesale  Dealers  in 

Providence  River 
and  Virginia 

•OYSTERS- 

Also  all  the  varieties  of 

NATIVE    OYSTERS. 

49  Commercial  Street  and 
56  Clinton  Street, 
146  AND  148   Atlantic  Av'enue, 

BOSTON. 


Corn-raised  stock  makes  the  finest  meat. 

It  is  firmer,  richer,  and  costs  us  more;  but  we  sell 
it  at  the  same  price  that  wild  Western  beef,  mutton, 
and  pork  bring  in  most  markets. 

Our  profits  are  less  on  each  sale,  but  the  greater 
satisfaction  to  customers  results  in  our  increased  patron- 
age each  year. 

You  will  find  The  Faneuil  Hall  Branch  Market 
to  be  the  only  market  selling  the  Best  Goods  at 
STRICTLY  Boston  prices. 

GEORGE   W.   M.AcBRIDE, 

FIELD'S    CORNER. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


ZIll 


F.   M.   KINGSBURY, 

WHOLESALE 

Produce 
Commission  Merchant 

AND  DEALER   IN 

Ai.L   Kinds  of   Frtit    and    Proouce. 

No.    1 6   Mercantile  Street, 
BOSTON,   MASS. 

TtLiPHONr,   4-1   Hm. 


RESKRVED 


Dance   and   Society    Halls 

TO  LET  IN 

STEWART   BUILDING, 

Geneva  Avenue,  corner  Bloomficld  Street. 

Houses  and  Land  for  Sale. 

Apartments  to  Let. 

APPLY    TO    OWNIR, 

JOSEPH    I.   STEWART, 
Residence,   50  Bloomfield  Street,  Dorchester. 

TiirPHONrs:    Dorchester  130,  Boston  1431-2. 

Miss   Mary    D.   Chandler, 

Concert   Pianist 
and  Teacher. 


I 


Best  Coffee 

IN 

The  World, 

Golden  Dome. 


ASK  FOR  IT. 


W.  S.  QUINBY  CO. 

Wholesale  onlv. 


PEOPLE'S   MARKET. 

D.  A.   MURPHY. 

Groceries  and  Provisions, 

Fruit,   Fish,   Poultry, 
and  Game  in  their  season. 

1377  Dorchester  Avenue, 
BOSTON. 

MRS.  A.   G.   BUFFUM, 

236  Adams  Street. 


STORE     FOR 


Dry   and 


7 


Fancy    Goods, 

Christmas   Novelties. 


North    Avenue   Laundrv. 


Telephone   144-^- 


Yerxa's    Boston    Branch, 

GROCERS. 


Turner  Gold  Medal,   N.  E.  C,   Lcschctizky  School.  Qrders  by  Telephone  will   receive  Prompt  Attention 


5  Ashland  Street, 
Dorchester. 


132  Boylston  Street, 
Tuesday  and  Friday. 


143;  Dorchester  Avenue 
and  206  Adams  Street, 

Field's  Corner,       -         -       Dorchester. 

Orden  ctlled  for  and  goodi  delivered  promptly. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Souh   Photograph    Co.^ 

Art    Publishers. 

Mounted  and  Unmounted   Photographs   of 
Works  of  Art 

AND 

Views  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Special  Collection  of  the 
Historic  Houses  of  New  England. 

Framing  to  Order. 

Framed  Pictures  for  Whist  Prizes  and   Holiday 
Gifts. 

338   Washington  Street,  Boston. 

One  flight. 


William  B.  Taylor. 


J.  Louis  Taylor,  Jr. 


Taylor  Brothers^ 
LAUNDRY, 


UPHAM'S  CORNER, 

Dorchester. 


Telephone  Connection. 


Compliments  of 

HOUGHTON   &   BUTTON. 


Woman 

Suffrage 


Tracts. 


a  sample  set  of  woman  suffrage  tracts, 
40  different  kinds,  sent  postpaid  for  10 
cents.  The  set  includes  opinions  and  argu- 
ments in  favor  of  woman  suffrage  bv  Clara 
Barton,  Secretary  of  the  Navy  Long,  Hon. 
George  F.  Hoar,  William  Lloyd  Garrison, 
George  W^illiam  Curtis,  Frances  E.  Wil- 
lard,  Mary  A.  Livermore,  J.  G.  Whittier, 
Henry  W.  Longfellow,  Ralph  W^aldo 
Emerson,  Phillips  Brooks,  Florence  Night- 
ingale, Abraham  Lincoln,  Charles  Sumner, 
and  many  other  eminent  men   and  women. 

Address 

Massachusetts  Woman  Suffrage 
Association, 

3  Park  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


Elliott's  Flour  takes  the  lead. 


Snow  Brothers, 


GROCERS, 

291  Adams  Street,  Dorchester. 

561  High  Street,  Dedham. 

Norfolk  Street,  corner  Edson, 

Dorchester. 


E.  G.  Davis  &  Son, 

81   and  ?ii  Main  Street, 
Charlestown. 


It  is  quick  to  serve  to 

Lodges, 

Societies, 
and   Families. 


j.   EDWIN    SWAN, 

Plumbing,  Gas-rttting,  Steam  and  Hot 
Water  Heating. 

Furnaces,  Ranges,  Tin-plate  and  Sheet- 
iron  Worlc. 

1 141   Washington  Street, 
Corner  River  Street,     Dorchester  Lower  Mills. 

TfTFI'MONE,    "5-3    MlI.TON. 

Telephone  1839. 

V (I ill II m  Oil  Co.^ 

45    PURCHASK    STRKKT, 
Boston. 
Lubricating  Oils. 


Lamson  &  Hubbard, 


Manuj-acturf.k^  of 


Fine  Silk,  Stiff,        TT    A    'HT^O 
Soft,  and  Straw   J.  J-x*.   X.   0» 

Ladies'   Furs. 

90  to  94  Bedford  Street,  cor.  Kingston, 
BOSTON,  M.ASS. 


Comim.iments  ok 

HKNRY   W.  HUBBARD, 
Real    K state, 

DORCHESTER. 


The  Dorchester  Book 


This  book  was  printed  by 
GEO.   H.  ELLIS 

No.  272  Congress  Street 
Boston 


^'^k<€ENTURY  ENGRAVING  CO 

2+  BEDFORD   ST. 

-     BOSTON 


;B5  GFPLATE5A 
•>iGN5   0FEVERY- 
.CDIPTiON-rGRy' 
)5TRATIVE  PURPOSES- 


'PHONE  813-2  OXFORD 


Ubc  Christian  Register 

FOUNDED  IN    1821 

George   Batchelor,  Editor 

As  a  religious  family  newspaper,  77ie  Chr!stia?i 
Register  aims  to  assist  the  Unitarian  Church  in  ren- 
dering to  the  public  the  highest  possible  service  by 
presenting  and  illustrating  living  truths  capable  of  im- 
mediate application  in  the  lives  of  all  sorts  and  condi- 
tions of  men.  While  it  deals  with  public  affairs  and 
current  events,  with  science  and  literature  and  art,  its 
main  purpose  always  is  to  enlighten,  to  comfort,  and 
to  strengthen. 


Sample  copies  sent  free  on  application 


Published  at  $2.00  per  year  by 

Cbe  Christian  Register  Hssociation 

272  Congress  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 


This  book  can  be  obtained  of 

Mrs.  McHENRY  ROBINSON, 

27  Sh.a.wmut  Park, 
Dorchester, 

at  50  cents  per  copy  ;   60  cents  by   mail. 
Cloth  bound  copies,  $1.00  \  by  mail,  ^1.15. 


Old   Berkshire 


Mills 


KSTABLISHED     18OI 


THESE  papers  recom- 
mend themselves  as 
unexcelled  for  correspond- 
ence, business  or  pleasure, 
and  for  legal  blanks  and 
important  documents. 


First-class 
Flat 
and 
Folded 


Papers . 

Extra   Suptrfine 
Bristol   Board 


White  and   Cream, 
All  Regular  Weights, 
Carried  in  Stock. 


Manofacpured  rv   .. 


Ji^*Jt 


Old  Berkshire  Mills  Co. 

Dalton,    Mass.,    U.S.A. 


JijItJtJtJkjliJiJtJkJLjIijItjUjItjijtjtj^Jl 


f 

'5-  D^;-.. 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


D    000  974  768    4 


.^^-mm.,: 


